The Rainbow Guardians 1: Kanto
by Fires of Eden Red Rose Aurora
Summary: When Ash started his journey, a young timid young girl called Leah also started. Fate changed, and Ash ended up with Riolu and start towards becoming an aura guardian. However, things are not always as they seem, with Ash's mysterious father in the mix, their journey could be problematic. Along with their friends, Ash and Leah have many challenges awaiting. I Do not own Pokemon!
1. A New Life for Leah

Rainbow** Guardians**

**Here's the other story! This one is a bit different in plot and includes an OC. For those who don't like OCs, how can I practice original characters without giving it a go.**

** Also, I am struggling to decide who I want Ash's father to be for this one. The regions will be done a bit of different order, too. We will skip Hoenn and go straight to Sinnoh then do the Battle frontier. Then we head to Alola. I may do a sequel with the other regions not mentioned just there. Do you want the different regions in different stories to break it up?**

* * *

Ash Ketchum was an excited young boy. Tomorrow he was going to start his Pokémon journey! Everything was packed and ready to go, except for a few items he couldn't pack until the morning. His alarm clock had been set by his mother, hopefully, he wouldn't break it before the morning.

Delia Ketchum, the proud mother of Ash, knew her son was liable to stay up late when he was excited, which was why she took it upon herself to make sure it was set with enough time for Ash to get to the lab by nine. Back in the day when her older sister had started her journey, it had been seven thirty: much more respectable now.

The Ketchums had just finished dinner, and now Ash was on the floor in the living room, reading his guide to becoming a trainer, while periodically playing with a toy pokéball he had. Ash could barely wait until tomorrow! He had so many plans for his journey, and the Pokémon he would catch on it: he planned for his starter to be Charmander, as it would evolve into Charizard.

Charizard was a great Pokémon on any trainer's team. Ash spent quite a lot of time helping Professor Oak when he didn't have an assistant. There he met lots of Pokémon, including a few Charizard.

Ash was not much of a reader, however, the book his mother had given him was very interesting, and his mother insisted he read it if he wanted to become a Pokémon Master and a trainer full stop. The most noteworthy thing about its cover was it was at least twenty years old, despite that it was very interesting. He had all the tips and everything any trainer needed to know. After he finally started reading it, Ash for the first time in his life, found something to read he could not put down. Ash recalled Leaf mentioning she and Gary had read the book.

"Ash, I think you should go to bed now," Delia said, looking over to the clock.

"But, mum! It is not even nine yet!" Ash whined.

"You have a big day tomorrow, though, and you don't want to be tired and sleep through your alarm and miss starting your journey. Besides, the sooner you go to sleep, the sooner you can wake up and start your journey," she pointed out.

"I suppose. Alright, night' mum," Ash nodded, closing his book and slowly standing up.

"Night sweetie," Delia said, standing up also and giving her son a kiss on the forehead.

Ash then trudged to his bedroom. He got changed before hopping into bed and attempting to go to sleep. He lay there with his eyes closed until he finally fell asleep.

ASH!*((( )))))*ASH!

"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" the alarm clock of Ash tolled. Ash groaned: what a rude noise!  
As he reached over to turn the stupid thing off, a thought sprung to his mind! Today was the day he would start his journey. That made Ash spring out of bed and into action.

He quickly got up and brushed his teeth then had a shower, before changing into blue pants, black shirt with a dark blue and white vest over the top, a green backpack, and finally his official league expo hat.

He planned to get to Viridian City by evening, but just in case, it was worth having a shower now. Anyway, it was more likely he would get there tomorrow.

Ash's father had apparently taken three days to get to the city, which Ash could not quite believe. Then again, beyond that Ash knew nothing of his mysterious father, so maybe it was imaginable? He had been to Viridian City once before with Professor and Gary, and it was half a day's travel there and back with a car.  
After his shower, Ash gave his hair a light comb before gathering up the remaining items he needed to pack. However, one item was his trainer guide, and he couldn't find it! Eventually, Ash found it behind a cupboard just outside his mother's room: Ash had no idea how it ended up there.

He then grabbed the berries for his Pokémon: Oran, lum, Cheri, sitrus, rawst, Pecha and aspear berries were packed, along with a couple of potions and revives his mother had brought when she'd gone to Viridian City.

Pancakes were for breakfast, but when Ash went to help his mum bake them, he accidentally spilt most the mixture, which meant they had to remake it. By the time he had eaten, Ash was walking out the door ten minutes after he was supposed to, as Delia wouldn't let her son leave without breakfast.

Ash quickly ran through the streets of Pallet Town, hoping to not arrive too late. Professor Oak would give him a starter, but by now Leaf and Gary would have already chosen theirs. Ash didn't think either of them wanted Charmander, however, he didn't want them to have too much of a head start, and you never know which they will end up picking.

As Ash ran up the stairs to the lab, he almost ran straight into Gary Oak, Professor Oak's grandson. The two boys used to be friends, then something happened which set them apart. By the time Ash next saw his friend, the boy had changed and didn't want to be even around Ash.

"Hehe, Ashy-boy has finally arrived. Bet you overslept: we have barely started and your already miles behind," Gary said. The brown-haired boy was giving Ash a smug look, and the raven-haired boy did not like it.

"Not actually: Just had a whole heap of rotten luck," Ash said, walking right past. As he continued on, he felt concerned Gary was wearing a look which told Ash, the boy knew something Ash didn't.

Ash knocked on the door to the lab; it was opened by the assistant of the Professor, whom Ash did not know or did not remember the name of. After climbing the stairs to get there, Ash was about ready to fall on the door.

"Ah, Ash: the professor is in his lab. I trust you know where," the assistant said, moving to let Ash come in.

"Thank you, sir," Ash nodded to the male assistant. Ash thought his name might have been Rodger or something similar. Ash quickly went upstairs where the lab was.

"Professor!" Ash cried as he walked into the lab. He glanced around and saw the elderly professor at his desk, typing onto a computer.

The white-haired Professor turned around in his swivel chair, looking confused until he spotted Ash. "I hear you have had a bad morning," he stated.  
"Yes, Professor! How did you know?" Ash asked in disbelief.

"Your mother rang to say you were coming. Unfortunately, I don't have any starters left," the Professor said, looking embarrassed.

"What?!" Ash asked in disbelief.

"Well, a kid from another city was going to come, then he wasn't, and today he just turned up and I only found he was coming five minutes before he arrived. Since you were late, I could hardly not give him a Pokémon: I'm sorry. Gary and Leaf were already here, and you were not: I'm sorry, Ash," Professor Oak said, sounding very sorry.

"I understand, I think," Ash said sounding very disappointed. He was trying hard not to cry: Ash had been looking forward to this day for a very long time.  
Professor Oak meanwhile felt very, very bad. "Well, I could give you that Pokémon… would you mind your starter being a bit different, Ash?" he asked, coming up with an idea. He had just caught Pikachu, and it was fairly weak. However, it had a bad temper, and the professor was not sure about giving it to a beginner, but maybe it would be okay.

"Yes, Professor! I wouldn't mind one bit," Ash said, instantly perking up. Professor Oak silently sighed: he couldn't think of any other Pokémon to give Ash.

"Well then—" the professor started, but then his assistant came in.

"Professor, there is someone here to see you," the assistant said.

"But I am not expecting anyone!" Professor Oak said, dumbfounded.

"She's a ten-year-old wanting to start her journey," the assistant said, stepping to the side to reveal a short, light blonde girl wearing rags for clothes. She had green-blue eyes.

"Oh no," Professor Oak sighed very quietly.

"I turned ten a couple of days ago: I live in an orphanage and when I heard about Pokémon training, I thought it sounded like fun, and it also seemed the only way to escape the life I had. Please, sir: I would really love to start a Pokémon journey: I travelled for two days to get here," the girl said, pleading.  
"Alright, I will find a Pokémon for both of you!" Professor Oak nodded.

Considering this girl had travelled from a long way away, he could not give her one either. Professor Oak also decided that giving Ash a Pikachu, that was only just captured and had a questionable temperament to boot, was a bad idea. He had just the Pokémon that would suit the boy, and a Pokémon he thought the girl would like. He quickly went off to find them. He shook his head and wondered why he didn't think of Riolu earlier. Also, they reminded him of people he had met in his youth, who had had those two Pokémon.

"I'm just starting too. I'm Ash Ketchum!" Ash said brightly.

"Hi. My name's Leah," the girl, Leah nodded, albeit quite timidly.  
"What Pokémon are you going to catch? Which gym will you do first? Have you decided on a path as a trainer?" Ash asked, asking a lot of questions.

Poor Leah just stared at him. "Umm, I don't know. I don't know anything about being a trainer really, or gym battles," Leah said shyly.

"I know all about it! Why don't we travel together?" Ash suggested brightly.

"But you have only just met me?" Leah said in disbelief. She couldn't this boy was happy and eager to travel with a stranger!

"I don't mind! It would be fun!" Ash said. He couldn't understand her problem: people did that all the time!

"O-okay," Leah said, looking unsure.

Meanwhile, Professor Oak who now had two pokéballs in his hand and been listening in. He smiled: Ash was such a nice child, and he would look after that girl. He was concerned though: presumably, the child came from an orphanage, judging by her clothes? He would have to find the name out and check it out, as they should be better dressed and educated then this girl, and the champion had been talking about orphanages that needed to be given a wrack over the head, over how they treat their kids.

"Right: here we go," Professor Oak said, catching the children's attention before he walked in. "Ash, I want you to have this one: I think it will suit you perfectly." The professor said.

He walked over to the two kids then handed a Pokéball out to Ash. Ash took it as he said, "Are you sure? Thanks, Professor!"  
"No problem at all, my dear boy. How about you see what's inside?" Professor Oak suggested.

"Okay," Ash said, brimming with nervous excitement. He walked away from the other two a bit. "Come on out!" he cried, throwing the pokéball into the air.

It released the Pokémon inside a few feet away from him. What came out was a blue and black Pokémon, about the size of a four or five-year-old child. It's feet and hands looked like paws, and it had a blue tail. After a second, the Pokémon turned around to face Ash, saying, "Ri?"

It looked as though it had a black mask over its eyes. "Wow! A Riolu! They are supposed to be very rare!" Ash cried.

"_Are you my master?" _Riolu asked, approaching Ash. It raised its right paw, and Ash touched it with his left hand. A blue glow surrounded them both.

"Just as I thought," Professor Oak nodded.  
"What, p, pr, professor?" Leah asked.

"Ash's mother, his mother's sister and his grandfather were all able to use aura, considering their connections with vary Lucario: so, I thought Ash would be able to, too. That we have just witnessed is a rare phenomenon called an Aura Bound. It happens when a trainer and Pokémon able to use aura meet and form a connection instantly, it means no matter the distance, Ash and Riolu will be able to communicate, and through Riolu Ash will be able to understand all Pokémon if he wishes," Professor Oak explained.  
"Wow, that's cool!" Leah said.

"Yes, it is. Now, sorry: what was your name again?" Professor Oak asked, looking embarrassed.  
"Leah, sir," Leah nodded.

"Ah! What a fine name," Professor Oak said. He then looked as though he was trying to remember something.

"I know, Riolu! We are going to be a great team!" Ash said brightly: the professor and Leah had missed the rest of the conversation, and the glow fades away. The two had been discussing the future.

"Well, glad to see you two getting on famously. Now, Leah, time for your starter: take this one, it is a nice friendly Pokémon, according to Professor Rowan from Sinnoh," Professor Oak said as Ash and Riolu walked over. Professor Oak was holding a Pokéball out to Leah.

"Are you sure I am fit to look after a Pokémon?" Leah asked, unsure.

"You'll be fine: I have seen much worse start their journey," Professor Oak said smiling.

"Okay," Leah said, slowly taking the pokéball. Ash wondered if like Riolu's, the pokéball Leah was holding was nice and smooth.

"Go!" Leah said, taking a few steps away from Ash and the Professor, and releasing her Pokéball, trying her best to copy Ash.

What emerged onto the ground was a medium to small-sized bird. Its body was fairly large, compared to a Pidgey. It was mainly dark grey in colour, with a white patch around its eyes and under its neck. It had a black tail, black ruff around its neck and a bit of black over the top of its head.

It took off, crying, "Starly!"  
"Wow!" Ash exclaimed.

"What is it?" Leah asked, bending down to be at the bird's height when it landed again.

"A Starly. They are known for living in noisy flocks, especially when they're after bug Pokémon. They tend to stay in groups or flocks until they reach their final form, Staraptor. It knows Steel Wing: for whatever reason Professor Rowan taught it that via TM," Professor Oak supplied.

"You said it was from Sinnoh, right?" Ash asked as Leah tried to catch Starly's attention. The Professor nodded. "Okay: if I recall, they have a lot of similarities to the Pidgey line," Ash nodded.

"Hello, Starly," Leah said nervously. Starly was looking at her curiously.

"Starly?" Starly chirped.

"Wow, it was almost as if it was asking me why I was scared!" Leah exclaimed.

"Part of the amazing thing of Pokémon is the first Pokémon a trainer receives has a special bound allowing them to have a natural understanding for their starter. It does not allow for a clear translation as an Aura Bond, which means trainers every now and then misunderstand their starter. Not to mention an aura bound allows a trainer to fully understand every Pokémon while most people have to learn and guess from experience," the professor explained.

"Wow, sounds amazing. Hey, Starly, I want to try and become a trainer: would you help me? I am going to need a lot of help as I know nothing," Leah asked.

"Sta!" Starly nodded, then it flew and landed on Leah's shoulder.

"Wow! Great! Thank you!" Leah said, slowly lifting a hand to gently stroke the bird. It was actually quite a heavy creature.

"Great! Now, would either of you like to nickname your Pokémon?" Professor Oak asked.

"_No way!" _Riolu said to Ash. It sounded like an angry "Ril!" to Professor Oak and Leah though.

"Not for us, thanks," Ash said, chuckling slightly.

"What do you think, Starly?" Leah asked, thinking it was the polite thing to do. After all, it had a right to decide what everyone was going to call it.

"Sta! Starly!" Starly said: it liked the idea very much!  
"Alright, I just have to think of one," Leah said.  
"Don't Pokémon have genders? And how do you tell?" Ash asked Professor Oak.

"Well, just come over here, and I will issue a Pokédex for both of you: it will tell you. As a general rule you can't tell, however, some Pokémon look different if their male or female," Professor Oak said, walking over to his computer, with Ash, Leah, Riolu and Starly following. Then he explained what a Pokédex is to Leah.

"Sounds useful," Leah nodded.

After pulling two Pokédexes out of a shelf, the Professor put one in a machine that looked like a DVD player, then he typed a few things into the computer.

When Professor Oak had typed all he needed to, the first Pokédex popped out. "Here, Ash: open it and see what it says," the professor instructed, handing the device to Ash.

"Thanks, Professor!" Ash said, taking it gratefully. The device was in the shape of an old-fashioned flip up style mobile phone, just bigger. It was red with black parts, a screen in the middle, a big blue button and a few small buttons on the other side.  
"Hello, I am the Pokédex of Ash Ketchum: if lost or stolen, please report. If found, take to the nearest Police station. I am ready to scan my first Pokémon if Ash speaks the voice activation," the Pokédex said after Ash pressed the big blue button.

"Good. Now, point it at Riolu," Professor Oak nodded.

"Right: what do you know about Riolu, Pokédex?" Ash asked, doing as the Professor said.

"_Riolu, emanation Pokémon, on level five. It knows how people and Pokémon feel by looking at their auras. It doesn't approach dangerous opponents. It's tough enough to run right through the night, and its also a hard worker, but its still just a youngster. This Pokémon is average height and male."_

"Wow! That's so cool!" Leah cried.

"Thanks, Professor," Ash nodded.

"Right, Leah, your turn for your Pokédex," Professor Oak said. He then went on to ask Leah information about her, name, and hometown. She made her hometown Pallet District, to mean she came from that area around Pallet.

"And, here you go," Professor Oak said, pulling out a Pokédex similar to Ash's except it was white instead of red.

Leah did exactly what Ash had done to activate the Pokédex, and it said the exact same thing as Ash's, except it belonged to Leah Lin. Having to have a surname, Leah decided on Lin: she was not even sure why.

"Right, thanks, Professor," Leah nodded. Then she said, "Let's scan Starly, then."  
_"Starly, the starling Pokémon, on level five. They flock in great numbers, though small, they flap their wings with great power. This Pokémon is female, and larger than average for its level, standing at 1'09 feet."_

Starly let out a chirp, and flew off, doing some quite cute things. "Wow! That's so cute!" Leah said, giggling slightly.

"Umm, excuse me, Professor, how do level's work? And why's Starly so large?" Ash asked. He had scanned Starly as well, and at the moment Leah was scanning Riolu.

"What are levels?" was what Leah asked.  
"Good questions! That's the level of the Pokémon's experience. Every battle you do counts as experience, so to speak. When you have earned enough points, it will grow up a level. At certain levels, the Pokémon will evolve. This is what we created to keep track of Pokémon growth and how long until they are due to evolve. Of course, some need stones or certain areas to evolve. Throughout your journey you will see very large and small Pokémon, even if they're the exact same creature," Professor Oak said.

"Does the training affect the life-span of Pokémon at all?" Leah asked quietly.

"Not at all! In fact, studies have shown it increases it if anything. Now, would you like to name your Starly?" Professor Oak asked.

"Yes. You said Staraptor is its evolved form?" Leah asked, and the Professor nodded. "Well, how about Star? Starly, what do you think?"  
"Sta!" Starly cried. She seemed to like it.  
"I think that's a winner," Professor Oak commented.

"Right, Star it is!" Leah nodded.

"Good, good. Now, we just have to fill out your trainer licences, and we're finished," Professor Oak said.

He asked Leah the same questions as earlier, but also had birthdate and emergency contact, (which ended up being the professor,) and then the professor printed out two cards; blue and red. "There, your both registered trainers!" Professor Oak said cheerfully.

"Great! Thanks, Professor!" Leah and Ash said.

"And here: here are six Poké Balls, which should allow you to catch six Pokémon. Including your starter, that would mean you own seven Pokémon: when you reach number seven, the newest Pokémon will be traded back here. If you wish to swap the seventh Pokémon into your party, call me from any Pokémon centre. Eventually, I'll finish the upgrade that allows you to switch out your Pokémon from your part and my lab whenever and wherever you like. Take two potions each, too," Professor Oak said.

"Wow, thank you! There's a lot to remember," Leah said, concerned.

"It will be fine!" Ash said brightly.

"Is there anything else?" Leah asked, shaking her head.

"I don't think so. Oh! What generation does the Pokédex go up to? Why does it look different from the pokédex the trainers who started two months ago?" Ash asked. For the last year, he had watched all the new trainers get their starters.

"Well, this is a new model: those ones were updated versions of the just Kanto, and they had up to Sinnoh Pokémon. However, you five starting today have gotten the beta version of my new Pokédex, which will register Pokémon in every region up to the Alolan Islands, and eventually, you will be able to call people with it and transfer your Pokémon back and forward from here to your party. Alas, Bill and I are still working on the software for that though," Professor Oak said, getting quite excited.

"So, Gary, Leaf and the other boy got one, too?" Ash asked.

"Ritchie is his name: yes, you are all very lucky trainers to be the first ones who receive this dex," Professor Oak said.

"I feel honoured: thank you! Well, we should head off, I suppose," Leah said.

"Yes, you two hurry along before you get too far behind the others," Professor Oak said.

"Okay! Star, do you want to stay inside your ball or be out?" Leah asked.

"Starly!" Star cried, flying onto Leah's shoulder.

"Riolu, would you like to stay out?" Ash asked, and Riolu nodded.

"Let's go then! Bye, Professor!" Ash nodded, then he ran off.

"Wait! Bye, Professor," Leah said, just gazing after Ash.

"Take these, too: Poké ball belts. What was the name of your orphanage?" Professor Oak said, handing Leah two belts, with six things that probably hold pokéballs. Leah stayed long enough to put one on, put her pokéballs on it.

"Thank you so much, professor! Umm, it was called Sunny Futures," Leah said quickly.

"Thanks," Professor Oak nodded as Leah ran off to catch up with Ash.

"Hey, Ash! Wait up!" She cried, distressed.

!

"Here, Riolu is: where I live!" Ash exclaimed as they reached Ash's house. The duo had run all the way there.

"Ash! Your back!" Delia said, coming out looking excited.

"Mum! This is my partner, Riolu!" Ash cried excitedly.

"A Riolu? That's great, honey!" Delia nodded with a bit of delay.

"Err, mum, are you alright?" Ash asked tilting his head.

"Sorry: my sister's starter was also a Riolu," Delia said, shaking her head.

"I have an aunt? What happened to her? Why hasn't she visited?" Ash asked.  
"Now's not the time for that: you are starting your journey with a great Pokémon!" Delia said. "Hi, Riolu, your part of the family, now!"  
"_Thank you," _Riolu said.

"That's okay. Take care of Ash, okay?" Delia said smiling.

"Ri!" Riolu responded with yes.

"You'll be going off to Viridian City, now, right?" Delia asked.

"Sure are, mum! I am just waiting for Leah," Ash nodded.

"Is she a friend?" Delia asked, and Ash nodded.

"There you are, Ash Ketchum! Please don't do that again!" Leah's voice said. Ash looked back the way of Professor Oak's Lab, to see Leah running up towards him, panting hard. Star was glaring at Ash.

"Sorry. Leah, this is my mum! Mum, this is Leah: she has just started her journey too!" Ash said brightly.

"Nice to meet you, M, Mrs Ketchum, isn't it?" Leah asked, doing a little bow.

"Nice to meet you, Leah. You two going to be travelling together then?" Delia said, and the two kids nodded.

As hard as she tried, Delia couldn't help but notice the clothes Leah was wearing: they were basically rags. "Well, we should probably go now. Do you have anything to change into, Leah? They are not really suited for travelling," Ash asked. Delia realised it must be really obvious if Ash noticed it; when it came to though things like that, he was pretty dense.

"No," Leah shook her head shyly. "I saved up a bit of money because I didn't know if becoming a trainer costed money, so I saved up about five thousand, which I was planning on using for a change of clothes, then supplies, considering no money was needed."  
"You look like you're a similar size to my sister when she started: you could at least take some of her old clothes," Delia said, deciding.

"That's a great idea!" Ash nodded.

"Thank you, but I couldn't possibly accept that! You don't know me, and your offering clothes?" Leah said, disbelieving. No one was that generous, were they? She was always told they weren't.

"Well, neither of us are going to need it, and Daphne, my sister, isn't: so, I'd gladly pass them on to you," Delia waved it off.

"Okay, if you insist. Just a short stop first, Star," Leah said, speaking to her Pokémon at the end.  
As Mrs Ketchum turned around and walked back inside the house, with Leah and Ash following, Delia asked, "Is Star the name of your Pokémon?"  
"It's what we agreed on together," Leah said.

Delia Ketchum nodded as she led them both upstairs to the attic. She took them over to a rather dusty old trunk, then got down on her knees and opened it. "Would this be alright?" Delia asked, pulling out what looked like an overstretched long-sleeve yellow shirt, black pants, grey runners and a tatted straw hat.

"That would be great. Thank you, thank you, so much," Leah said, oozing with gratefulness. Leah then took it.

"No problem really. I was never really sure what to do with her stuff, but I'm glad I hung on to it now," Delia said. Then she pulled a photo album.

"This is her, here," Delia said, opening it and pointing at the first photo. It had two brown-haired girls in it, one Ash was pretty sure was his mother, the other one looked like his mum, only with hazel eyes and slightly darker hair. His mum was wearing a pink shirt, purple shorts and pink and purple runners along with a floppy hat. Daphne was wearing a white hat, blue shirt and red skirt. There was also a Riolu hiding behind Daphne, Ash noticed upon second glance.  
"You both looked so happy," Leah said quietly. She felt a little awkward here, even though Delia was showing Ash AND her.

"She had just started her journey then. A year or something later, she came back just before she went to Johto, as mum and dad were dying. For the first time, I left the town. We had no other family, so I tagged along with Daphne and her friends, still being too young to start myself," Delia sighed.

"What happened then, mum?" Ash asked.

"Team Rocket was a group trying to improve and create technology: However, they were slowly going bad and loved power too much. It all started in Cianwood City: there was a big fight my sister was involved in, along with her friends, Blue, Red and Green, and they were all killed. I and Daphne's Pokémon were sent back here, and I stayed with the Professor. Instead of starting my journey as I had always dreamed though, I went to a university, until I ended up returning here. You see, I had no idea about the fight and Team Rocket, I had thought the explosion had been caused by Pokémon in a training accident, so I was scared to start, and blamed them. By the time I found the truth out that they were actually killed by Team Rocket, I had a new life," Delia said, crying.

"I'm so sorry," Leah said.  
"Yeah, mum. Are Daphne's Pokémon still around?" Ash asked solemnly.

"Yes, at the Professor's lab, including her Lucario: Pokémon can live for a long time, and this was only twenty-five years ago," Delia nodded.

"Can I go and visit them someday?" Ash asked.

"Yes, but not today. You two need to hurry on your way," Delia said. Leah and Ash nodded, then Leah went to get changed: Star flew into the air while she did so. After putting everything on, she pulled her hair back into a low ponytail.

When she came back, Leah discovered Ash had found a yellow backpack for her. She quickly put all her stuff in it. "Thanks, Ash. Here, your pokéball belt," Leah said, handing it to Ash. Star landed on her shoulder again.

"Oh, thanks!" Ash said, taking it.

"Now, there are a few other travelling items in here: such as sleeping bags and a tent, though if it's not raining it's nice to just sleep on the ground," Delia said.

"Oh, that would be a good idea," Ash said. Both took one, though Ash had to throw it at Leah before she would take it.

"Now, you two better go," Delia said. Ash and Leah nodded, and they headed downstairs.

###################################3333

"Just one question, mum: is Daphne the reason you know so much and have so many books on Pokémon?" Ash asked as he and Leah walked out the front door.

"Yes, it is. Now, Good luck, Ash! I love you! Don't forget to change your underwear every day!" Delia said, pulling her son into a big hug, and she gave him a kiss.

Leah giggled, while Ash looked embarrassed. "Good luck, Leah. Now, you two keep an eye, and look after each other! And please, be careful of Team Rocket! They might have been doing good once, but they are not now, and whatever they tell you is a lie, not to mention they will try and steal your Pokémon," Delia said, after letting go of her son.

"We will remember that! Bye, Mrs Ketchum!" Leah said as she and Ash went to leave.

"Bye, mum! I'll call you when we get to Viridian City!" Ash said.

"Ri! Ri!" Riolu said. He was saying goodbye.

"Sta!" Star called.

"I'll hold you to that!" Delia called to Ash.

As she watched them walk away, she smiled. "Ash made a good friend. I just hope he doesn't recognise Ash, or their life will be much more complicated then it needs to be," Delia said worriedly. She turned and walked inside, planning to call a couple of friends to keep an eye on Ash when he travelled through there.

* * *

**Hey, would you like to give me some ideas for Leah's background? I don't mind really. I will put teams at the start of the next chapter. Yes, in this story Ritchie is the other trainer. Backstory is something you have to look forward to: Delia always seemed very keen on Pokémon yet didn't have one before Mimie. Here's a possible explanation.**

**Aura will be part of the story and quite important. Some characters will be changed in some way, just wait and see to find out what I mean. Movies done will be: Celebi, Latios and Latias, The Lucario one (wait and see to find out how it works,) the Shaymin one and maybe the Darkrai too. **

**How big groups do you want them to travel with? Three, four or five? Ash and Leah will basically always be travelling together. There will be Misty for certain parts, and Brock for Johto, Tracy for Orange Islands, then Sinnoh Lucas, Dawn and maybe Brock. I would maybe had trainers for Johto and Orange. Misty will appear once or twice when they reach Sinnoh. Battle frontier will be Ash, Leah, Dawn, Brock and Maybe Lucas.**

**Pairings:  
I was thinking Ash with Lillie, Dawn or Anabel. I'd accept other suggestions, I won't do Ash X Misty though. I've got a few ideas for Leah, and Brock will probably be with Lucy or Susie, Misty X Rudi, undecided beyond that. If I didn't do Ash X Dawn, Dawn would get paired with Barry.**

**I was watching Sinnoh while editing these, and I can't wait to get to Sinnoh. This Ash probably won't get Pikachu in this story.**

**I can't think of anything else, so later! Also, if there are any silly mistakes let me now, as they were accident because I had to edit something on my phone. **


	2. Viridian City

**Chapter 2: Viridian City**

**Cool right? here are my twin pokémon stories! TMs and egg moves will be a thing in this story. and Ash has a little vendetta with team rocket. I couldn't fit it into the summary, but this story will have some themes from games and anime, and maybe manga. **

**Ash's Pokémon:  
Riolu**

**Leah's pokémon:**

**Star-Starly**

**Gary's team:  
Squirtle**

**Review responses:  
True Master: Yeah, I could do that. I didn't think of that, and it could work. I am not exactly sure how to work it though.**

**Here's the chapter.**

* * *

The walk down the first route of the Kanto Region was pretty quiet, so far. A few Bellsprout, Sentret, Rattata and Pidgey crossed their path, but that was it. "What Pokémon do you suggest catching, Ash?" Leah asked.

"Let's see: If I recall, Bellsprout will finish up as Victreebel, but Pidgey ends up as an amazing Pidgeot: great choice either. I'm going to catch a Pidgey as soon as I see one that catches my fancy. Sentret isn't too bad, either," Ash said, looking around.

Then he said, "There might be some others, though." Right on cue, a Minccino showed its face for not even a second before rushing back into the bushes to hide.

"Okay," Leah nodded.

"Hey, Leah: let's see if our Pokédexes know what our Pokémon know, move wise," Ash suggested.

"Okay," Leah nodded. The two then pulled their Pokédexes out and registered their Pokémon to find out the moves.  
"_This female Starly knows tackle, growl, quick attack and steel wing. It has the ability Keen eye," _The pokédex said. Leah then read about keen eye.

Leah exclaimed, "They sound cool!"  
"Quick attack and Steel Wing are good ones to know: I wonder why Professor Rowan taught her Steel Wing? Now, Riolu knows Foresight, Endure, Quick Attack and Crunch: Wait, that move is an Egg Move! Cool! Not a bad move set for either of them, mind you there is a limit to what they can know," Ash said, looking at Riolu's moves. He noted Riolu had Prankster as an ability, which was a rare ability for them to have, though perhaps not the most useful.

"Hey, that river there is moving fast," Leah said, pointing to the river which was bending right next to the track.

"Yeah, it is," Ash nodded. They walked on a little further down the path.

Leah heard a rustling, then she looked around to see a Pokémon in a bush: now was her chance to catch one! "Hey, Star! Use Tackle on that Pokémon over there!"  
"Sta!" Star cried, flying at it with tackle after spotting the Pokémon.

"Huh? Wait, don't do it!" Ash cried, realising it was a Spearow, and how they could be when attacked but not knocked out. Too late, Leah couldn't call Star back as she hit Spearow by that point.

"Spear! Spearow!" the Spearow cried, looking mad.

"Uh-oh," Leah said, looking nervous. Then she asked, as Spearow continued to cry and more came, "What do we do?"  
"This is why you have to be careful just starting out like this! You should have asked me first, silly! Riolu, Quick Attack as many as you can!" Ash ordered.

"Ri!" Riolu said, releasing a Quick Attack.

"Steel Wing, Star! Help Ash and Riolu out!" Leah asked.

"Augh! There are too many for Riolu and Star to take out," Ash cried. A Spearow just pecked Star out of the sky.

"What do we do?" Leah asked as Star landed in her arms.

"Run!" Ash said as Riolu joined them.

"Where to? We are surrounded!" Leah exclaimed looking around.

"The river! Riolu, return!" Ash said, returning his partner and putting the ball on his belt before running to the river, after jumping through a bush and tree.

"Okay. Return, Star," Leah said, doing the same thing. When Star's Pokéball was safe, Leah followed him, after being pecked in the back by a Spearow.

The two made quite a big splash, then they let the river take them downstream, away from the Spearow: the sudden splash frightened the nearby Magikarp. They both just noticed a rainbow bird that would be an important part of their destiny in years to come, soaring across the sky, before both fell unconscious because of being pulled underwater by the river.

"Hey! Wake up! Come on," a voice said, shaking Ash.

Ash slowly opened his eyes to see a girl's face above him. She had short red-hair tied to the side of her head, and she looked a bit older than Ash. She was looking worried, but now Ash was awake she looked slightly more relieved. Ash noticed it was starting to get dark by now.

"Where am I?" Ash asked, jumping up to an upright position. He looked around to see he was on a river bank further downstream from where they entered, presumably: just nearby was Leah.

"You and that girl were floating downstream, so I got Starmie to fish you out. Your friend has not awoken yet," the girl said.

"Oww, what happened?" the voice of Leah asked. Ash and the red-head looked over to see Leah was starting to wake up.

"Are you alright, Leah?" Ash asked.

"Ash! Yes, I'm fine," Leah nodded after spotting Ash.

"Well, you both seem okay: that's a relief. My name's Misty," their saviour said.

"Thanks, Misty: my name's Ash," Ash nodded.

"Thank you for helping us, Misty. I'm Leah," Leah said, thinking Misty must have saved them. It made sense, after all.

"Oh, by the way, Ash: I don't know if this was yours, but when I was getting you out of the water it fell out of your pocket," Misty said, pulling out a rainbow feather. All three stood up, and Leah walked closer.

"Wow: it's a rainbow feather! I haven't seen it before, though," Ash said, scratching his head as he picked it up.

"I haven't either," Leah said shyly. Then something crossed her mind! "Wait, just after we had jumped into the river, I vaguely noticed a rainbow bird in the sky: maybe it came from that? Well, I could have imagined it!" Leah quickly added.  
"Come to think of it, I think I noticed it too," Ash nodded.

"Well, I am going to guess it was meant for you then," Misty said.

"Probably, but either way, thanks, Misty," Ash nodded. Then he opened up his bag and put the feather inside, after a quick glance at Leah.  
"I am going to check Star. Come out!" Leah said, pulling out Star's Pokéball and releasing her bird friend.

"Sta!" Star cried. She then flew onto Leah's shoulder, still quite injured from the battle earlier. Star was worried after they were attacked by those other birds and Leah had returned her, but she looked safe, along with Ash, which was all that mattered to Star.

"Wow! It's so cute! You only see them in the flocks during certain seasons," Misty exclaimed.

"Really? Well, it's my starter," Leah said as Ash released Riolu. Ash heard Murkrow crying as he did so: defiantly getting late.

"And you have a Riolu!" Misty said, seeing Riolu. Then she commented, "It is not common, but it has been known to happen."  
"What?" Ash asked.

"Professor Oak gives trainers Pokémon which are not the normal starters: I assume that's where you got them from," Misty explained.

"That's right," Leah nodded.

"_Master, are you alright? You should have left me out! I could have protected you!" _Riolu said, getting angry at Ash.

"_Sorry, Riolu. But I thought it was safer for you: I couldn't stand the idea of you getting hurt," _Ash said to Riolu. Unbeknownst to the two of them, there was a blue glow surrounding them.

"_Alright: don't do it again," _Riolu nodded.

"_Okay, next time we will jump into the river together," _Ash said. Riolu nodded in approval.

Meanwhile, Misty asked, "What's that glow around them?"  
"Err, I don't know," Leah flushed. Star just tilted her head.

"Are we glowing?" Ash asked as the glow disappeared.

"Yes. Anyway, I am going to take you two to Viridian City, and make sure you get checked up in the morning! I am not a doctor, and I want to make sure you are not about to drop dead," Misty said, picking her bag up from the spot she had left it.

"Alright, we were going that way anyway. But not now, surely?" Ash nodded.

"Yeah, good point." Misty blushed embarrassedly. "Let's have dinner and set out sleeping bags," Misty said. Ash and Leah nodded, then they opened their backpacks and pulled their sleeping bags out, along with Misty.  
Misty also pulled out some sandwiches she had made before coming out of the city, and kindly shared them with Ash and Leah: they all released their Pokémon then fed them. Ash and Leah gave Star and Riolu potions to get rid of the injuries they had received from the Spearow.

As they curled in their sleeping bags with their Pokémon, Hoothoot were hooting in the nearby trees, along with several other nocturnal Pokémon making sounds.

The next morning, they got up and had their breakfast before hitting the road again. Misty returned all her Pokémon before they left: a Staryu, Starmie and Goldeen. After double checking they had everything, Misty led them to the main track as a flock of Fletchling flew overhead.

A couple of seconds later, the three of them returned to the main path and walked down towards the closest city to Pallet: Viridian City. Misty went to pick her bike out the grass, only to discover it had been attacked by a wild electric type. She was now carrying it over her head, looking very pissed off. Neither of the beginner trainers wanted to get on the wrong side of Misty, they decided.

Leah was thinking meanwhile, how nice it was to sleep outside in a sleeping bag instead of on the hard ground and fall asleep listening to various Pokémon chirping through the night. She also thought it was nice to stay out with friends: not as lonely as sleeping on your own, which she had been on her way to Pallet Town. Ash just enjoyed sleeping under the stars. Now, he was showing an endless amount of energy, way in front of the two girls, who struggled to keep up.

Two hours later, and one win for Ash and loss for Leah, (Leah was upset she had lost some of her hard-earned money,) the trio arrived in Viridian City. It was bigger then any town Ash or Leah had seen before, and Misty was taking note of the fact they seemed a little overwhelmed by the big buildings and all the people. But this point, she had taken charge and was leading the way to the Pokémon Centre where she could make sure the two ten-year-olds were given a check-up, along with their Riolu and Starly. Another pointer that they had not been in the big city before was the fact they kept crossing the road before looking.

The rooftops of the towering buildings were covered in Pidgeys and a few other common and semi-common Kanto flying-types.

On the way to the Pokémon Centre, they passed the gym, where several trainers were talking about the fact the gym was closed again. Misty frowned: considering the gym was nearly always shut, why weren't the League doing anything about it?

"Again? I can't believe it," Misty muttered.

"What?" Leah asked, shaking her head. She had been having a chat with Star.

"The gym leader of this city is hardly ever here. On my way through yesterday, they had only just come back from four months away!" Misty said, shaking her head.

"Wow: aren't they supposed to be there all the time?" Leah asked, and Misty nodded. Leah couldn't believe she had guessed right! She stood there looking shocked.

"Someone is supposed to be there all the time: I am surprised the Champion hasn't cracked down on this yet," Ash remarked. Riolu gave a small cry in agreement.

"Yes, it is very surprising," Misty nodded.

They passed the Police Station, where Officer Jenny was making an announcement about Pokémon thieves. Out the front, there was a wanted poster for three team rocket members, with a man with short blue hair, a woman with long red hair which was defying gravity, and a Meowth who was very human-like, on it. They all had the unmistakable red R of Team Rocket on their shirts, except for the Meowth.  
"My mum warned us to be careful of them," Ash commented.

"That's a good idea: they're generally easy to beat, but some of them, namely the executives, is quite a force to reckon with," Misty said. They continued on to the pokémon centre.

"What exactly are they?" Leah asked.  
"Team Rocket? They an organisation that used to do explorations and science for our benefit, but since have turned to taking over the world: parts of their motto hints about their past goals. Now they will steal your Pokémon, and some have been known to try and kill trainers," Misty explained.

"They sound mean," Leah said, shivering in fright.

"It's alright: I will accompany you for a little while, if you like," Misty offered.

"Really? That would be great, Misty: I have to admit I would be happier with a more experienced trainer with us, for at least a little while," Ash said.

"That's okay! Are you two going to take on the gyms?" Misty asked, and Ash nodded.

"I am not really sure what I want to do, but I might give it a go. I don't really know anything about it, though," Leah said shyly.

"We will fill you in over dinner: I should have done earlier," Ash said, feeling bad he had not thought of it earlier. They then told her about Nurse Joy, and the mystery of her family all looking the same.

By the time they had got to the Pokémon Centre and given Nurse Joy their Pokémon, it was late afternoon. "Do you have bike repair here?" Misty asked Nurse Joy.

"Yes, we do," the nurse nodded, having seen Misty's bike as the three had entered.  
"I'm the leader of Cerulean City: do you need my Gym Leader License?" Misty said.

"What?!" Ash exclaimed in disbelief.

"Okay, as soon as it's repaired, we will withdraw the money and it will be taken to your gym," Nurse Joy nodded, gesturing for her Chancy to take the bike away.

"You're a gym leader? The Misty Waterflower?" Ash asked Misty as they stepped away from the counter.

"Yes. I don't like to advertise as I don't want to be challenged on the road. Truth is, my sisters and I don't get on very well, so I ran off. I am going back now though, as they are not very good and are probably giving badges away without a battle," Misty sighed.

"You have sisters?" Leah asked.

"Three of them. They couldn't care less about me or the gym, as long as they can do their stupid performances," Misty said bitterly.

"I am sure they do care for you," Leah said, trying, and probably failing to make Misty feel better.

"Yes: I hope you'll let us battle you when we get to Cerulean City, Misty. I am going to make a couple of calls," Ash said, walking over to the phones.

"Alright! I'd love to! In the meantime, we will order!" Misty told him. Leah and Misty went ahead to order some food while Ash called his mum and Professor Oak, after he and Leah were checked up on Misty was not going to let them get out of that.

"That's great news, honey! What's that bruise on your face?" his mother said, noticing the purple spot.  
"Yeah, you can thank a flock of Spearow for that," Ash said, looking awkward. Then he said, "Leah accidentally angered some Spearow, and we got chased most the way here: we both okay though, just one got me in the face." Ash felt a little bad for lying to his mum, but he was worried about how she might react to the truth of them jumping in the river and bashing his face on a rock.

"Well, that's a relief. Anyway, I won't keep you any longer! Speak to you soon," his mum said.

"Yes, mum: love you," Ash said.

"And you," she said, then Ash's mother hung up. Ash then rang Professor Oak.

After the Professor had answered and asked Ash a couple of questions, Ash asked, "Professor, Leah and I saw a rainbow bird Pokémon in the sky, and we think it might have dropped us this feather!" Ash pulled the rainbow feather out.

"Interesting: I believe you saw the Pokémon Ho-oh. It is a very rare Pokémon that is hardly ever seen anymore," Professor Oak explained.

"Why's that, professor?" Ash asked.

"Well, it basically keeps to the skies now: after some people tried to capture it for bad purposes, and after that, only very few have seen since. You two are very lucky," Professor Oak explained.

"Wow! Will it be in the Pokédex?" Ash asked.  
"Yes: but only its name," replied Professor Oak.

The two talked about Ho-oh a little longer, then Ash asked, "I was speaking with Riolu before, and according to Misty and Leah, there was a glow around us. What could it mean?"  
"I wasn't sure if you knew, but obviously, you don't. Your mother's family are aura users, who go back to the great Sir Aron, or so I believe. While you don't know anything about aura, it can sometimes flare up, or in the case of the aura bond, it comes naturally. I will try and see if I can find someone who knows about these things: there's bound to be another aura user around," Professor Oak explained.

"That would be great, thanks!" Ash said brightly.

They kept talking until Misty basically grabbed Ash and dragged him to the Cafeteria. Over lunch, Ash and Misty explained about gym battles and the Pokémon league. Misty expanded on that and included contests and Pokéathlon as well: Ash stated he was only going to do one season of both because he had to, to become a Pokémon master. Leah thought she would like to try each of them. Ash told them what Professor Oak had said about the aura.

They explored the city near the Pokémon Centre until evening, where they returned for dinner. They chatted and watched a live broadcast of a battle with a Rowlet fighting a Litten somewhere in Alola: the two Pokémon were the fire and grass of the Alolan starter set. The Rowlet and its trainer one the battle, pretty amazingly.

After they finished and collected their Pokémon, they made their way up the stairs for bed: all bedrooms at a Pokémon Centre were always on elevated floors. Suddenly, there was a loud bang. "What's that?" Misty asked.

"Let's find out," Ash said, feeling concerned. The two girls nodded, and they ran down the stairs to the lobby.

As the entered, they saw a frantic Nurse Joy. "What's going on?" Leah asked the nurse.

"We are under attack from Team Rocket! Can you help me delay them? Officer Jenny won't be too long, and I just need to send the Pokémon to Cerulean City, and or keep them safe until she gets here," Nurse Joy asked.

"We will!" the three trainers nodded.

Just then, there was a blast on the roof, and a Meowth shaped balloon with a green basket flew down.  
"Prepare for trouble," a woman said.

"Make it double," A man said. This went on. Ash, Misty and Leah quickly realised these were the people on the poster at the Police Station.

When the 'motto' finished, Misty commented, "Well, that was boring."  
"How dare you?! Give us your Pokémon or else!" the man, James said, looking furious.

"Go to hell! Go, Star!" Leah said. Star flew forward.

"Blasted Team Rocket! You killed my aunt! Go, Riolu!" Ash said, overcome with a fit of rage: a faint blue glow formed around him, threating to strike out. Ash felt the beast try and lash out; he did his best not to let it out. Riolu jumped into the fight also angry; he understood Ash's anger.

"Go, Starmie!" Misty said, releasing the purple starfish Pokémon.

"Ekans, go!" the woman Jessie called, releasing a snake. Leah quickly scanned it in. along with James' Pokémon Koffing, and the Meowth.

"Get them!" the Meowth said.

"Did that Meowth talk?" Misty said in disbelief.

"Yes, it did. Star! Steel Wing!" Leah ordered.

"Riolu! Use Quick attack!" Ash called.

"Starmie, Dazzling Gleam on both!" Misty commanded.

The three attacks were launched and knocking out the two poison types. "I am going to go: you two are pathetic getting defeated by some twerps!" the Meowth said. He jumped in with Fury Swipes attack.

"Use Crunch!" Ash called.

"Rio!" Riolu said, which meant, "_With pleasure." _He found the Meowth horribly arrogant and was happy to give it a good bite.

"Oww!" Meowth exclaimed as Riolu latched on his arm.

"Meowth! Stop playing around!" Jessie cried.

"Star, tackle!" Leah said. Star swooped in and hit with a tackle as Riolu let go, sending Meowth into his two friends.

"Team Rocket! You're under arrest!" a voice cried as a bike screeched just outside the doors: it almost went through the glass automatic doors. Then the person ran in as the doors opened. She was dressed in blue with green hair and a gold symbol on her hat.

"Oh no!" James said.  
"Let's get out of here!" Jessie said. The three rushed back to the balloon and went up into the air. They returned their Pokémon as the balloon went into the air.

"Stop! Use Quick Attack!" Leah cried.  
"Sta!" Star said, flying up.

"Koffing!" James said, releasing his Koffing again. "Do you have enough energy to use smog?"  
"Koff," Koffing nodded. Then it used Smog.  
"Sta!" Star cried, closing her eyes hurriedly.

"Star, return!" Leah said as the smog reached them. Ash and Misty returned their Pokémon as they started coughing. When the smog cleared, Team Rocket had gone.

"Augh! The got away!" Officer Jenny groaned.

"Those bastards!" Ash hissed.

The aftermath didn't go on for that long. Jenny asked a few questions, then she left. Nurse Joy in thanks healed the trainers Pokémon without them asking, before shooing them off to bed. "It's been a very hectic first two days," Ash commented just before the three went to bed.

"Sure has. I hope it won't be like this all the time," Leah said, looking very tired.

"As a general rule, it is not as hectic as yours sounded. Tomorrow should be nice quiet. Goodnight," Misty said, opening the door to the room she and Leah were sharing.

"Goodnight!" Ash and Leah said. Leah followed Misty into their shared room, with Ash going into his room.  
While Leah lay on her bed, she thought about the battle with Team Rocket. Ash had attacked them pretty ruthlessly: she wondered if he let the anger of what Team Rocket had done to his aunt get to him? He didn't kill anyone though, which was something. She thought she had noticed a blue glow around him, too. But unlike when he interacted with Riolu, it looked angry and ready to strike, like a snake.

She turned over to try and get to sleep: it wasn't her business what Ash did, and she was not brave enough to do anything, anyway.

* * *

**Misty's debut. Leaf and Gary will appear at Pewter story. They might meet Ritchie then, too. Jessie and James will appear every now and then until the St Anne where they decide to skip Team Rocket.**

**Like the Spearow? next up will be the forest and they both catch a pokémon. Can't think of anything else to say.**


	3. New friends

**Chapter 3: New Friends**

**What do you think of my cover for it? I couldn't put all the important to plot characters on it, so I chose my favourites/the ones they spend some time travelling with. Thank you for the support so far. Someone has added Cynthia into the mix of ideas for Ash's pairings: what do the rest of you think of that?  
To the vegans who mind their own business and respect other people's views might be different: you are a decent human and god bless you. To the ones who hold up travel and threat people: I hope you get chased by a goose or a bull next time you invade someone's property and steal animals.**

**Sorry, but I need to have myself heard. I am not trying to be rude or anything, I am just being honest. What you eat is none of my business, however, it suddenly becomes my business when people think they're the king of a kingdom when they're not. Go and get a job at animal aid, or something.**

**Pokémon list: **

**Ash:  
Riolu, male.**

**Leah:**

**Starly (star) female.**

**Misty:  
Starmie (genderless). Staryu genderless. Goldeen, female.**

**Gary:  
Squirtle (male).**

* * *

The next morning, Ash, Misty, and Leah had breakfast in the cafeteria all Pokémon centres had. When they finished, Misty led them out of the city to the forest, after stopping at the Pokémart for supplies: along the way, they found some items which were sellable, which excited Leah.

They were only a little way into the forest and it was already very dark and creepy. Misty was hiding behind Leah, looking around nervously at all the bug type Pokémon around in the woods. It was an improvement to the last ten minutes which she had spent screaming, which had gotten on Leah and Ash's nerves very quickly.

Despite the fact the bugs were not on the path, being visible was enough to scare Misty. Leah did have to admit, they were not the nicest looking bugs: Ash couldn't see anything wrong with the bugs, except maybe the weedles. Misty was giving Leah directions on where to go by whispering them to her: why Misty decided to hide behind Leah and not Ash was behind her. Ash walked next to Leah, skipping along.

Just as Ash went to catch a Caterpie snoozing in a sunny patch along the side of the path, Leah stopped him. "Remember, Misty can't stand bugs. If you want one, we can come back another day," Leah said timidly.

"True: alright," Ash nodded.

"Ri," Riolu said sadly. "_I really wanted to help catch a new friend, too," _he said.

"Don't get too down, Riolu! There will be other chances," Ash said brightly.

"Star!" Star cried.

"Do you want to catch a Pokémon, too? We will see one eventually," Leah said, stroking the starling.

"You lot remind me of Starmie and me: I don't spend enough time with it, but we're very close," Misty commented. That was about the loudest thing she had said for the whole trip when she wasn't screaming.

"You could release it now," Ash suggested.

"Okay: Starmie, come out!" Misty said, pulling Starmie's pokéball out and throwing it into the air. The other two stopped to allow Misty to release her partner.

"St," Starmie said the purple starfish.

"Starmie says it's nice to be out," Misty smiled. Then she said, "Nice to have you out with me, Starmie."

Ash and Leah smiled, then they continued on. While they walked, Ash and Leah scanned Starmie:  
_"Starmie, the mysterious Pokémon. This is a genderless Pokémon and on level forty-five. The centre section is named the core. People think it is communicating when it glows in seven colours._

"Do both your Pokédexes have level checkers on them?" Misty asked.

"Yes: here!" Ash said, finding it.

His Pokédex said, "Riolu is on level seven. Oh! He leant counter!" Ash moved it to Star. "Starly is on level six, almost seven."  
"Wow, that's cool," Leah said shyly. A while later, they stopped for a training session.

#########################################

A few days later, all three were very cranky and tired and completely and utterly lost. "I can't believe we're lost!" Misty exclaimed, collapsing on the ground. The only good thing to come out of it was a bit of training.

"We've been walking for days, and I am so tired," Leah groaned, also collapsing.

"Yeah, me too," Ash said, falling to the ground to have them all lying in a circle. All three were lying on the back.

"How many days have we been stuck in here?" Leah asked quietly.

"Too many!" exclaimed Misty.

"Three or four, by the way. Maybe while we're stopped, we should do some training," Ash said.

"That's an idea," Misty nodded very slowly.

Right then, Riolu perked up at a sound. "_I hear something, Master Ash: a bird a bit bigger then Star," _Riolu said.

"What? Where?" Ash said, sitting upright quickly.

"Ri!" Riolu said, pointing over to Ash's left.

"What is it?" Leah asked, also sitting up.

"Yeah?" Misty asked sleepily.

"Riolu heard something over there," Ash said, looking to where Riolu had been pointing. Riolu had gotten up and was going closer, with Ash not too far behind.

Leah and Misty jumped up and picked their bags up, then, them, Starmie and Star followed Ash, trying to see what it was. Finally, as they came out into another clearing they saw something: a bird. It was mostly brown with a brightly coloured strip over its head.

"That's a Pidgeotto!" Misty hissed.

"Let me see," Ash said, pulling his Pokédex out, along with Leah.

_"Pidgeotto the bird Pokémon. This Pokémon is full of vitality. It constantly flies around its large territory in search of prey. It is average height for a Pidgeotto. on level sixteen. A female with the ability keen eye."_

"Wow! I thought they evolved on level eighteen!" Ash said quietly.

"Yes, but sometimes Pokémon evolve earlier: mostly if they are particularly strong Pokémon," Misty explained quietly.

"Well, there is no way I am letting this chance escape. I was going to catch a Pidgey, but a strong Pidgeotto would be okay, too. Riolu, attack with quick attack!" Ash ordered.

"Ri!" Riolu nodded.

"And quietly," Ash added.

Riolu nodded, then he slowly slipped out of the shrubs. When he was out, he quickly attacked the Pidgeotto with quick attack.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto cried as she was hit. She then took to the air, looking extremely angry. As soon as she saw Riolu, Pidgeotto attacked with Gust.

"Riolu! Dodge it!" Ash called coming out of the bush, but too late, Riolu got swept up by the gust.

"And that will do a lot of damage, too," Misty said as she, Leah, Star and Starmie got out of the bushes.

"Why?" Leah asked, confused.

"It is flying which is super-effective against fighting, but fighting is super-effective against normal: so even though Pidgeotto is part flying, a fighting move would still do a reasonable amount of damage," Misty quickly explained.

"Wow, typing is complicated," Leah gasped.

"Riolu! Wait until Pidgeotto gets close to you!" Ash called as Pidgeotto started to fly towards Riolu. Pidgeotto was using tackle, Ash thought.

Riolu waited, and waited. "_What do I do?" _Riolu asked his master, opening the aura bound.

"_When it's close, use crunch," _Ash said through the aura bound.

Just as Pidgeotto was seconds from hitting Riolu, Ash called, "Now!"  
Riolu jumped into action and latched onto the bird's wing with crunch. "Shaw!" Pidgeotto cried in pain. She thrashed about a bit until she managed to throw Riolu off. As Riolu stood up, he panted.

"Hey, Misty: if Riolu is on level seven and Pidgeotto level sixteen, does that mean Pidgeotto is a lot stronger?" Leah asked.

"Yes: He's going to have to use brain: he probably knew this could end badly," Misty said.

"Should we tell him to stop?" Leah asked as Pidgeotto used another gust and Ash called for Endure.

"No: that Pidgeotto is really mad, and she would just chase us if he quit now," Misty said, gesturing to the angry Pidgeotto who was visibly fuming.

"Use Quick Attack, Riolu!" Ash called.

Riolu used quick attack, however, Pidgeotto avoided most the attack and just got brushed on the wing. It then attacked Riolu with a Quick Attack of its own. Pidgeotto then went on to go back to back quick attacks. Riolu dodged some, but towards the end, he struggled to dodge the attacks.

"_What now?" _Riolu asked.

"_Endure," _Ash said.

"Ri!" Riolu nodded, holding his ground and enduring the attack.

"This is bad," Ash said to himself.

"Ash! You need to be very careful! Riolu doesn't have much juice left!" Misty called.

"I know! Riolu, use quick attack until you hit!" Ash called.

This quick attack hit. It made contact, but Pidgeotto got even angrier. "I have to admit, he has got quite a talent for battling," Misty commented.

Pidgeotto then used Quick attack back to back, but Riolu avoided them all. "_Use crunch! Then throw it to the ground!" _Ash commanded.

"_Yes, Ash," _Riolu nodded. Riolu waited for Pidgeotto to come in, then Riolu jumped into the air, and landed on its back and use crunch. Then Riolu grabbed the birds wing in its mouth. After hanging on for as long as possible, Riolu managed to push Pidgeotto to the ground, creating a cloud of dust.

When the dust cleared, Pidgeotto looked unconscious. "Now, Ash!" Misty cried.

"Why now?" Leah asked as Ash found a pokéball.

"It is the easiest time to catch a Pokémon is when their unconscious. Otherwise, they can wriggle and escape. They sometimes can do it at this point, but it does not happen as often," Misty explained.

"Pokéball go!" Ash said, throwing the Pokéball at the sleeping Pidgeotto.

As the Pokéball hit, Pidgeotto was sucked inside. It rocked twice, then donged. "Yes! We captured a Pokémon!" Ash exclaimed, running and collecting the ball, then jumping into the air. Riolu did too.

"That was your first capture, wasn't it?" Misty asked.

"Yes: it is great," Ash said smiling.

"Well done, Ash," Leah smiled shyly. She noted Star had wandered off her shoulder somewhere.

"Well done: impressive capture," Misty nodded. Then she glanced around to see Star sniffing some flowers. "Look at your bird, Leah."  
"Oh, your so cute, star!" Leah cooed.

"She is. Can I have my bag, Leah? Both Pokémon are going to need some healing," Ash said.

"Sure. It looked like a hard battle for both," Leah nodded, handing Ash his pack.

"Will you teach Pidgeotto steel wing?" Ash asked as he worked.

Meanwhile, Star cried, "Starly!" She was looking very happy. Then she took to the air and flew around a bit, while Ash used his healing kit to heal his Pokémon.

"Riolu has grown up another level, Ash! Sure, if Star doesn't mind," Leah said, pulling out her Pokédex.

"Really? Cool, thanks!" Ash said as he gave Riolu a Sitrus berry. He then sprayed some revive on Pidgeotto.

"How about we set up camp here?" Misty suggested.

"Sure: I could try some training, too," Leah said quietly.

"I'll help you!" Ash boldly volunteered.

"We're still lost though," Leah said, as she and Misty pulled out the few items they had for camping.

"We will sort that out tomorrow. We are getting towards the end of the day, after all," Misty shrugged.

Somewhere else in the forest, Team Rocket was sneaking around, finding a perfect spot to dig a hole to trap some poor unsuspecting trainer, preferably the trainers who had foiled they're stealing the Pokémon from the Viridian City Pokémon centre. It had been tasked to them by the boss himself, and now they had the lowest rank, because of their defeat at the hands of beginner trainers.

"Hey, Jessie! Meowth! There is some kind of Pokémon here!" James said, with a hopeful note. He wondered if they could take it to the boss.

"James, that's a Weedle! Get rid of it, and let us get back to work!" Jessie grumbled. She walked over and kicked the Weedle away.

"Weedle!" Weedle cried as it flew into the nearby bush. Two minutes later, Beedrill appeared and attacked the rockets. A few seconds later, they were calling, "We're blasting off again!"

Somewhere else in the forest, our heroes heard Jessie, James and Meowth scream. "Did you hear that?" Leah asked, jumping up.

"Hear what?" Ash asked.

"It sounded like we're blasting off again, or something," Leah said.

"I think I might have heard something," Misty nodded.

"I didn't. Right, Riolu and Pidgeotto, your all good to go," Ash said proudly. His two pokémon quickly ran off and started playing. Riolu was doing cartwheels across the glade.

"Starly!" Star exclaimed, flying back into the glade.

"Star's back!" Leah said happily.

"I had forgotten she'd gone! Oh no!" Misty exclaimed as Star suddenly lost strength mid-air and starting hurling towards the ground.

Leah had never been very brave, however, she put all her fear aside and jumped into the air to grab her Pokémon. "Ow. Are you okay, Star?" Leah asked, her ankle hurting.

"Wow! Great job, Leah!" Ash cheered.

"Star," Star said weakly. She flinched as if she was in pain, and Leah was sure there was static in her feathers.

"Star doesn't look good," Leah said worriedly.

Ash and Misty flocked over. "She's got a fever! Hey, could those flowers have had poison powder in them?" Ash said, remembering the flowers Star had been sniffing.

"I heard that some flowers spores can have a paralyse and poison effect on Pokémon, and they grow here. Right, bring Star over here," Misty said, gesturing Leah to the tent they had set up. They had set two up, and Misty and Leah had put Star in the tent they'd be sleeping in.

After Misty had made a bed, she took Star from Leah and placed her down, with Ash hovering in the doorway. "On the road, Pokémon can get sick all the time when a Pokémon centre is not close by, so it is important to know what to do. It's a good idea to have status curing berries in your back, and also learn how to deal with fevers and stuff. First, we need ice," Misty explained.

"But where are we going to get it from?" Ash asked as Misty picked up a bucket for water.

"Well, Starmie will help us. Starmie, fill it up with water gun!" Misty ordered.

"he," Starmie nodded, using the attack.

"Great, now freeze it!" Misty said. Starmie then used ice beam.

"Don't stand there! Ash, get that hammer next to the tent entrance, and there is a bag just for this sort of thing in my backpack, Leah!" Misty ordered.

"Yes, boss," Ash muttered as he went to fetch the hammer: god Misty was bossy! Leah did as she was asked silently and quickly.

Once Misty had both items, she used the hammer to break the ice, then she and Leah carefully put the ice in the bag. Once it was full, Misty gently placed it over Star's head. "Now, we should give her a pecha berry and a cheri berry and then see how she reacts. If it was indeed some spores from a plant, she should respond in a couple of hours," Misty explained.  
Leah nodded, then she made a dive for her bag where she had a box of berries. After asking what the pecha and cheri berries looked like, Leah pulled one of each out and handed them to Misty. Misty instructed Leah to turn them into a pulp, as it would be easier for Star to eat. Then Leah was told to spoon feed her Pokémon until the pulp of both berries was gone.

While Leah did that, Ash and Misty exited the tent. Ash's two Pokémon were gathered outside, with Riolu looking worried. "_Is Star going to be alright, master?" _Riolu asked.

"_She's going to be fine," _Ash nodded.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto cried. "_I want to play with her when she gets better."_

_"And you will," _Ash told his new Pokémon.

"This just shows you have to be careful," Misty said, slumping into a chair.

"Yes, it does," Ash nodded, doing the same.

A few minutes later, Leah came out. "She's eaten it all, and now's sleeping," Leah reported.

"That's good: we will see how she is when she wakes up," Misty nodded as Leah sat down.

"Oww, my ankle actually really hurts," Leah said, bending down to hold it.

"Let me get a bandage: if it still hurts when we arrive in Pewter, you should get it X-rayed," Misty said, jumping up.

She came back with a bandage, and after Leah took her shoe off, Misty bandaged it up. Right then, Ash and Misty decided to do some training. Feeling bored with nothing else to do, Leah just watched them, then she watched some Beautiflies that flew over.

As it turned out, Star responded to the berries, and by the next morning was her old self. Leah didn't do any training with her, as Misty had suggested a little earlier. Instead, they hit the road again. It was their lucky day, as they managed to find a path, of sorts… However, Leah was feeling bad for slowing them down, despite the other two claiming she wasn't.

As they were walking about, enjoying the scenery, Leah's ankle was beginning to feel better, and Misty started to get worried. "We haven't seen a lot of bugs," she said.

"I'd thought you'd be happy," Ash remarked.

"Somewhere in this forest, there are not a lot of bug types in a certain area. If you ever find that, it could be your approaching the Kakuna evolving grounds, and there's no way around," Misty explained.

"What does that mean?" Leah asked.

"Except for Kakuna and Beedrill, all Pokémon avoid that area as when the Kakuna evolve, they will attack anyone and anything nearby. Not to mention the Beedrill that guard them. Yikes! It is the spot!" Misty said, becoming petrified as they started to come across Kakuna hanging in the trees.

"Let's continue quietly but quickly," Ash suggested, and all the others nodded.

Meanwhile, a short distance away, a certain trio were walking around with a cardboard box over their heads and Meowth on top.

"Those stupid Beedrill!" Jessie groaned.

"Well, we will be safe from their stinging now," James said.

"Would you two keep quiet!" Meowth grumbled.

"Hey, Meowth! Get down here and help us!" James cried, realising their Pokémon teammate was slacking off.

"I wish I could, but I'm on lookout," Meowth said as if he had not a care in the world.

Jessie became furious at that point. "Oh, yeah? Well, look out for this!" she said nodding to James, then the two gave the box a sudden sharp push up. Meowth flew off the top.

"What does that mean?" Jessie and James heard a voice say. They quickly realised it was the twerps!

"Quick! Let's get ahead and grab them!" James said and Jessie nodded. They hurried along, ignoring Meowth half unconscious nearby.

"Yikes, look at them all," Ash said, as they entered a clearing full of Kakuna. By this point, they had returned Star, Riolu and Starmie.

"Let's keep going," Leah said nervously.

"Hahaha! Prepare for trouble," the voice of Jessie and James said.

As they went to continue their motto, Misty said, "SSSSHHHH!"  
"Keep it down… you'll wake the Beedrill," Ash told them quietly. He wanted to scream at them, but being stung by Beedrill was the last thing he wanted.

"Never interrupt the team rocket motto!" Jessie said loudly. She was furious, and James was not better. Meowth got back to his two chums at this point.

"Ekans!" Jessie cried.

"Koffing!" James cried.

"Go!" they both said releasing their Pokémon. However, the Kakuna started glowing then, and all the pre-existing Beedrill appeared, too. When they revealed their new form as Beedrill, Ash, Misty and Leah all screamed and made a run for it across the area, hoping to get across in one piece.

"Quick! Let's get back to our protection thingy!" James said as he and Jessie returned their poison types.  
They ran to where they had left their cardboard box, only to discover Weedle had eaten it. They only looked in horror as the Beedrill attacked them.

"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" Team Rocket called as they sailed through the sky.

Half an hour later, Leah, Misty, and Ash had all collapsed in a heap. They didn't even more until five minutes had passed. "I'm glad we got out of there," Leah sighed.

"Yeah, same," Ash nodded.

"I am so sick of this forest! How far can we be from the exit?!" Misty exclaimed, having a meltdown.

"When we've recovered, let's get moving. I am sick of this place, too," Ash suggested.

Since they were not going to go anywhere in the next few minutes and they were yet to eat, Leah suggested, "How about lunch?"  
"Good idea," the other two nodded. They begrudgingly got up and started setting up what they needed. Ash and Leah got to work making sandwiches while Misty fed their Pokémon. Leah asked Star if she would teach Pidgeotto steel wing, and the bird Pokémon agreed, so as they prepared their food, Star taught Pidgeotto steel wing.

When Ash had released Riolu he had gotten scolded for returning him when Ash was going into danger/in danger, and Ash apologised again for doing so.

By the time the food was ready, Pidgeotto had made great progress. After they had sat down and started eating, Misty said, feeling creeped out, "Is it just me, or do any of you feel like we're being watched?"  
"Err, your right!" Leah said timidly.

"I can't feel anything," Ash shrugged.

"So, the gym in Pewter City: rock-types, isn't it?" Leah asked.

"Yes. We should make sure we have a good look for grass Pokémon before we leave; because they could be very useful," Ash suggested.

"Leah especially needs one: Fighting is super-effective against rock don't forget," Misty said.

"True, but he only knows counter," Ash pointed out.

"It says it learns force palm at fifteen, and you are on level eight," Leah said, pulling her Pokédex out.

"Okay, I will at least aim for that, but another Pokémon would be handy, even if Pidgeotto masters steal wing," Ash nodded.

"_Ash! There's a grass type," _Riolu cried.

"What's Riolu saying?" Misty asked as Riolu started gesturing behind Leah.

"There's a grass-type," Ash said, looking around.

All three stood up, and Ash and Leah had their Pokédexes on, scanning for the grass-type. They finally saw what could have passed off for a snake with legs. It was green with a leaf-shaped tail, and a beige bit up its front and under its chin. It had big red eyes with a shade of yellow.

"_Snivy the grass snake Pokémon. They photosynthesize by bathing their tails in sunlight. When they are not feeling well, their tails droop. This Pokémon is male and on level seven."_

"Wow! They are rare here! Even in Unova where they're native they're not exactly common!" Misty exclaimed.

"And look! It's bathing its tail!" Ash said as the Snivy stood fully in the sunlight, his tail was so it could take as much sun as possible.

"It seemed very relaxed out about us," Leah commented.

"It is possible it could have been abounded, considering how relaxed it is about us being here and rare they are," Misty said, looking thoughtful.

"It looks really useful, but he also looks happy," Leah said quietly.

"Go on: he can always go back to it after," Ash urged.

"Yes, Ash is right. We won't find that many good grass-types when we reach the city, and some other trainer would catch it, anyway," Misty pointed out. She was surprised Ash wasn't wanting to catch it.

"But don't you want it, Ash?" Leah asked.

"Nah: you catch it, please. There will be plenty of other options," Ash said laxly.

"Okay. Star, ready for a battle?" Leah asked her starling Pokémon.

"Starly!" Star nodded. She took to the air.

As Leah asked Star to attack Snivy with Steel Wing, Ash commented, "This will be interesting: they're about the same level with Snivy a bit stronger, but Star has got the type advantage."  
"She doesn't know any flying moves though," Misty reminded him. Snivy was surprised about the attack and took it head on.

"True," Ash nodded as Snivy attacked with Vine Whip.

Despite it being caught unaware, the Snivy proved to have battling experience and was very good at dodging, then throwing in a Leer followed by tackle.

"Use Quick attack, please!" Leah told Star nervously. She had gotten a bit rattled ever since Snivy had hit Star with tackle.

"Leah! Concentrate! It is not over until it's over! If you don't command and strategize, you will lose certainly!" Ash called, hoping that would get Leah focused. Currently, she was losing the battle, as the Snivy was more experienced then Star.

"Oh right! Star, use Growl! Then Quick attack!" Leah ordered. Star did as asked, but Snivy avoided the attack, so Leah asked for quick attacks until Star hit.

After making contact, Leah asked for Steel Wing followed by tackle. By now, Star was looking pretty beat, and Ash and Misty were worried Star wouldn't last much longer. Compared to Snivy, Star was about to faint.

Just as Snivy prepared to use Vine whip, Ash called, "Get Star to grab the vines!"  
"What? Okay! Grab the vines as they try to hit you, Star!" Leah called, taking Ash's advice blindly.

"Star!" Star nodded. She waited until the vines were in grabbing range, then She grabbed them and spun Snivy around. Everyone was impressed at this display of strength!  
"Throw it to the ground!" Leah called.

"Starly!" Star cried as she threw Snivy to the ground.

"Try getting her to use Quick attack and Steel wing!" Misty suggested.

"Try Quick attack and Steel wing! If you think you can do it!" Leah called.

Taking that, 'if you can do it' as an insult, Star went and did just that. The attack hit the Pokémon directly, which was where attacks did the most damage.

"Sorry! I didn't mean it like that!" Leah cried as Star used another steal wing. Star gave a small chirp of forgiveness. Snivy was not quite fainted, but he was not fully awake.

"Try a Pokéball now!" Misty said. Star couldn't last for much longer, so it was worth the gamble of throwing the pokéball now.

"Pokéball, go!" Leah said, pulling a pokéball out and throwing it. Her aim was off, but Star used her wing to direct the Pokéball's course back into Snivy. "Great, my Pokémon is better and throwing pokéballs then me," Leah sighed as Snivy went inside the Pokéball.

It rocked twice, then the light went out. Everyone went to cheer when the light came on again, however, it quickly went out to signify capture. "Wow! We caught a Pokémon!" Leah exclaimed, running over and hugging Star.

"Star's almost on level eight, too," Ash said.

"Wow! Great, Star!" Leah said. She then picked up Snivy's pokéball. "Yay! We caught a Snivy!"  
"Starly!" Star said excitedly.

"It has just occurred to me you haven't caught any Kanto natives yet. Though you do see Starly flocks every now and then," Misty remarked as Leah walked back to her friends.

"There are of them out there! Leah just hasn't encountered the right one yet!" Ash said brightly. They both congratulated their friend on her first capture.

"Thanks. I feel a bit spoilt really," Leah said smiling nervously.

"Don't be: most trainers end up with quite a few rarities," Ash said, seeing his friend was feeling a bit bad about the fact. "I also could have decided to catch Snivy, but I didn't."  
"Why didn't you?" Leah asked as she healed Star with a potion.

"Because I really want a Bulbasaur, and people do see wild ones every now and then. Besides, Snivy has never been up the top of my to capture list, as there are many other great grass types," Ash explained.

"I see. Feel better, Star?" Leah said as Star stretched.

"Starly!" Star chirped, full of energy again.

As Leah went to let Snivy out, Misty stopped her. "Let's wait until we get to Pewter City. Abounded Pokémon can be a bit hostile upon being first caught, so let's let Nurse Joy heal it, then you can chat with it," Misty said.

"Our Pokémon will be fully healed then, too," Ash nodded.

"Okay. Should we pack up and try to get out of here?" Leah asked, and the other two nodded.

At lightning speed, their makeshift camp was gone, and they started on their way again. An hour or two later, the trees started to thin. Eventually, as the sun was setting, they found themselves coming out of the forest.

"Yes!" all three trainers cried as they spotted Pewter City. They quickly made a run for it.

* * *

**The reason I had Leah catch a Snivy: because I can, and Ash is having Bulbasaur, and I didn't think Bellsprout was right. Ash will catch plenty of out of region pokémon, however I will try and keep the number down for regions they visit in the story. The other regions I won't go overboard, as I might write them going to them.**

**Do people want Ash-Greninja? If so, do you want it how it is in the TV series (I have not watched those episodes as I was getting sick of the series before that and him not winning the league annoyed me greatly) or I could have it a hold item or something else. Would people mind too much if I had Leah beat Ash in one of the leagues by a very small, very small amount. My plan is Ash mostly beats her except for a few battles. This would just be their match point and Leah's pokémon lasts slightly longer then Ash's.**

**Look back at previous chapters then give me your brains on pairings. Other ideas are welcome also. **

**I had Star get sick in this chapter as A, it makes more sense then Riolu, B, it's a forest which is bound to have lots of exotic plants, C, I think it makes sense. I hope Misty doesn't seem too Ooc, however, I wanted it to happen and it fitted very well into this chapter, and Misty is going to know more then Ash, and needs to replace Brock while he's not in it.**

**Laterz!**


	4. Gym Victory and Fail

**Chapter 4: Gym victory and fail**

**Here's the next chapter! Thanks for the support everyone. it is so nice to have so many people showing their support. Please check my profile for a poll.**

**Unrelated question: By the way, is it possible to watch the force awakens anywhere online? My brother has it, but I'd rather see if it was online first.**

**Pokémon List:  
Ash:  
Pidgeotto, Riolu**

**Leah:  
Star (Starly), Snivy**

**Misty:  
Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Jessie:  
Ekans**

**James:**

** Koffing**

**Enjoy**

* * *

"Hey! Would you like to buy some rocks?" a middle-aged man sitting on a rock said: he was roughly dressed. However, Leah, Ash and Misty were too caught up in getting to the Pokémon Centre quickly, they didn't even notice him.

"Yay! We're here!" Leah, Ash and Misty cried as they entered the Pokémon Centre. They jumped in the air, with Star and Riolu also cheering.

"Hi! Welcome to the Pokémon centre," Nurse Joy nodded.

"Hi, Nurse Joy!" Ash waved. The three trainers and two Pokémon walked over after seeing her.

"Would you like me to heal your Pokémon?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Yes please," Ash, Leah and Misty nodded. Misty handed her pokéballs over, while Ash and Leah returned Star and Riolu. Then they handed their Pokémon over.

"Thank you. I will make sure their all healthy," Nurse Joy nodded.

"Thanks, Nurse Joy," the three trainers nodded.

"Can Leah and I sign up for the Pokémon League?" Ash asked.

"Sure: just hand me your Pokédexes," Nurse Joy nodded.

"Here," Ash said. Leah followed suit, albeit quite timidly.

"Alright: all done," Nurse Joy said a minute later.

"Thanks. Is the gym open?" Ash asked.

"Yes, it is," Nurse Joy nodded.

After booking a couple of rooms, Misty, Ash and Leah went to the cafeteria. "How about we challenge the leader tomorrow?" Ash suggested.

"What?! Tomorrow?!" Leah said, panicking.

"Sure, why not?" Ash said, looking surprised by the question.

"But we haven't even been trainers for even a month yet! And I don't think I'm ready!" Leah cried, panicking and speaking fast.

"Leah, it will be fine. Give it a go, and if you're not ready, we will wait and you can rechallenge Brock," Misty said reassuringly.

"But I don't want to hold Ash up!" Leah said, looking concerned.

"We've got a year. If worse comes to the worst and we're pressed for time, Pidgeotto and Star should be fully evolved by then, and we can just fly everywhere," Ash said cheerfully.

"I suppose," Leah nodded.

An hour later, Ash and Leah were both outside. Star and Pidgeotto were at Steel Wing again, while Ash was trying to teach Riolu feint. Ash was hoping for a three-level rise with training then they would learn the move feint, and Force Palm would be as close as ever. Meanwhile, Leah was trying to train Snivy.

So far, Snivy was only listening to half what Leah was saying, and half ignoring her and attacking her. Ash and Riolu were going fine and making lots of progress.

Leah cried out, jumping out of the way of another attack.

"All no! Why won't Snivy listen?!" Leah exclaimed.

"I am not sure. If it was abandoned, it is possible he could be particularly bitter towards humans and sometimes lash out," Misty said thoughtfully. That's when Ash came over.

"Is training not going very well?" Ash asked, looking at Leah who was staring at the Snivy with a scared look.

"No, it's not," Leah shook her head.

"I wish I could help. I don't know much about difficult Pokémon," Ash said looking embarrassed.

"Pidgeotto is going well," Misty said, looking over at the two flying types.

"Well, well, if it isn't Ashy-boy," the voice of Gary rang through the battling area.

"That Gary!" Ash said, jumping around to see Gary coming in with Leaf coming out behind him. He was wearing a dark long-sleeved shirt and dark pants.

"And look, he's training with pathetic friends," Gary said, looking over at Leah.

Leah went all shy and scared then, looking depressed. "Speak for yourself!" Misty exclaimed annoyedly.

"Let's battle, Gary!" Ash said, feeling angry that Gary insulted Leah.

"Sure. How many Pokémon have you caught?" Gary asked.

"Two," Ash admitted.

"Only two? Your light years from surpassing me! So slow and terrible. Fine, two on two it is: it will be even quicker then I thought," Gary said, looking unsurprised.

"I'll referee!" Misty declared.

"Star, Snivy, we will sit over here," Leah said, moving over to where they had left their bags; next to a seat.

Ash and Gary went to either end of the battlefield, with Misty on the opposite side of the field to Leah. Leaf came in, and went over and sat next to Leah. She wore a blue shirt, a red mini skirt, and had blue socks and pink shoes. She wore a white hat with a pink pokéball on it. She had blue eyes and dark brown hair.

"_I have to defeat Gary. I'll never live it down if he beats me, and I have to make him pay for insulting Leah," _Ash thought, nodding to Riolu for him to jump into battle when Misty had announced the rules.

"_Don't worry, Ash: we will defeat Gary. That kid is a nasty piece of work," _Riolu said to Ash via the aura.

"This will be a two on two battle, and only when both Pokémon on either side are unable to battle will the winner be decided. Begin!" Misty called.

"_Go, friend," _Ash said to Riolu. Riolu jumped in.

"Ash's is starting off with Riolu. With a flying type, this will be a synch! Go, Pidgey!" Gary said, releasing the brown bird, Pidgey.

Not sure if they had registered, both trainers registered Pidgey. "You make the first move, Ash. Wouldn't want you to not get to attack," Gary said smirking.

"Fine. Use Quick attack!" Ash called.

"Dodge and use tackle!" Gary called.  
"_Dodge!" _Ash told Riolu. "Now, use quick attack and then crunch!" Ash called.

"Crunch?! No fair!" Gary cried, realising that was an egg move.

So, caught up in it being 'unfair' he forgot to ask for an attack, which meant Riolu hit with crunch. As Ash told Riolu to let go, Gary called, "Quick! Gust!"  
"Counter!" Ash said.

Riolu stopped, and was surrounded by a light, and took the attack. "I don't understand, he didn't say to take it!" Leah said, not understanding it.

"Counter is a move that after you take damage the move power doubles the damage. Risky, but can be worth it. I'm Leaf, by the way," Leaf smiled.

"Leah. What's the deal with Gary?" Leah asked as Riolu hit Pidgey with counter. That did serious damage, and Pidgey was almost ready to faint. They exchanged another attack. It was clear Ash was a lot stronger than Gary.

"We all used to be friends until Gary just got more and more unpleasant. Nowadays, he and Ash are always at each other's throats. In the past, they had been best friends, but now, this is what's left of that friendship. Have you taken on the gym yet?" Leaf asked as Riolu used another quick attack crunch combo. Then Pidgey fainted. Ash was celebrating.

"No, we're going tomorrow. I don't know how I'll do. Especially when Snivy won't listen to me, and I am so worried and don't feel at all ready," Leah said looking down. "Have you challenged the leader?"  
"Yes, I got a badge but Gary didn't," Leaf said. "I know, how about to get some last-minute practice? Let's battle after Gary and Ash finish!"  
"Okay," Leah nodded as Ash returned Riolu and sent out Pidgeotto and Gary sent Squirtle out. After all, battling Leaf couldn't be that bad, could it?  
"Alright! Wing attack, Pidgeotto!" Ash ordered.

"Squirtle! We can't let loser Ash win! Use Water Gun!" Gary called.

"Dodge and keep going!" Ash cried. Pidgeotto twirled around the water gun and hit with wing attack.  
"Gust!" Ash called.

"Wow! Ash is really good!" Leaf cried.

"Sure is. He's amazing," Leah said in awe. Leah thought now would be a good time to pull out her Pokédex, and scan Squirtle.

"Now, let's try your steel wing!" Ash called.

"Careful, Squirtle! Wait until the last moment and dodge!" Gary called.

Pidgeotto came in all right and stuff, however, her wings lost the steel coating right at the end, and it was no more than a wing attack. She was furious. "Hey! That was a glorified wing attack! Use withdraw then water gun!" Gary ordered.

Squirtle went into its shell, then popped out using water gun. Pidgeotto was fuming about the fact steel wing didn't work, and she didn't notice the water gun until it was too late to dodge. "Pidgeotto, are you okay?" Ash asked. He had called out to the bird, but she had not heard.

"Pidg!" Pidgeotto nodded to say she was fine.

"Use Gust!" Ash called.

As the gust hit, a blue aura surrounded Squirtle, and its body somehow got gathered in water drops, making it look beautiful. "Is that torrent?" Misty breathed. Everyone else was in awe, too.

"Right! Use another gust, Pidgeotto! Full power!" Ash ordered.

"Squirtle! Dodge and use water gun!" Gary ordered.

"Torrents an ability that kicks in near the end of the battle!" Leah exclaimed, looking it up in her Pokédex.

"In cases like this, it can be the difference between defeat and victory," Leaf stated.

Both Pokémon dodged their attacks and continued to dodge a little longer. Eventually, Pidgeotto managed to use a true steel wing just as Squirtle went to use another withdraw. Squirtle was lifted into the air from the attack, and when it landed, Misty saw Squirtle had fainted.

"Squirtle is unable to battle: Ash is the winner!" Misty said gleefully.

"What? Ash can't have beaten me!" Gary cried. He spent the next five minutes ranting about it and coming up with ridiculous solutions. Meanwhile, Ash let Riolu out and then thanked both his Pokémon.

"Thanks, you two. You both did really well! Pidgeotto, it looks like you mastered steel wing!" Ash said.

Pidgeotto nodded: she was very happy about the turn of events. "_Master! I learnt that move we were working on!" _Riolu said excitedly. He then showed Ash the new move, feint.

"_Great! Riolu! What an awesome battle!" _Ash said happily. A little bit more ironing out of steel wing and Ash thought they'd be ready for Brock.

"Gary's a sore loser, isn't he?" Leah commented as Gary stormed inside the Pokémon centre.  
"Sure is. Come on! Let's battle!" Leaf cried, jumping up.

"You two battling?" Ash asked, looking over with interest.  
"Great idea!" Misty said.

"Yes, we are! Can we have the same rules as just before?" Leaf asked, running to the end Gary had battled from.

"Sure," Misty nodded.

"Good luck! Leah! Leaf!" Ash said as Leah come up to his end with Star and Snivy beside her. He was really looking forward to seeing these two battle.

"This is a battle between Leah and Leaf! Same rules as the previous battle! Begin!" Misty called.

"Alright, Snivy. You go first," Leah said nervously.

"Sniv," Snivy turned his nose away from Leah, but then ran onto the battlefield.

"Alright, Blossom! Go!" Leaf said, pulling out a Pokéball and throwing it. What came out was a green Pokémon that resembled a dinosaur. It had a few darker markings on its body, and on it's back was a dark green bulb.

"Who's that Pokémon?" Leah asked, pulling her Pokédex out, as did Leaf.

_"Bulbasaur, the seed Pokémon on level twelve. Bulbasaur can be seen napping in bright sunlight. There is a seed on its back. By soaking up the sun's rays, the seed grows progressively larger."_

"You start, Leah!" Leaf called.

"Okay. Snivy! Use Leer!" Leah called.

"Sniv," Snivy said, turning his nose up.

"Wow, what an attitude. Blossom, use Sleep Powder!" Leaf called.

"Bulba!" Blossom cried, releasing some blue powder.

"Dodge! Snivy!" Leah cried desperately.

Amazingly, Snivy did. "If Snivy doesn't start listening better soon, we should ask Professor Oak about it, because I'm at a loss," Ash said to Misty. He vaguely noticed Gary was watching from the entrance of the Pokémon centre.

"Well, he did then," Misty commented as Leah asked for Vine Whip. Snivy agreed however, he sent a vine Leah's way, too.

"Wow! Are you sure you're going to be alright with it?" Leaf asked, surprised about the grass snake attacking its trainer.

"I'm not going to give up easily!" Leah said, pretending. Ash knew she was losing confidence and heart over Snivy. While an experienced trainer would not give up yet, it was understandable a beginner might, especially one lacking confidence.

"Now, Blossom! Growl! Then tackle!" Leaf ordered.

"Bulba!" Blossom cried, releasing an endearing cry. Snivy titled his head, then started smirking. Without Leah's command, he ran forward with tackle as Blossom did.  
They attacked for a little longer and while they did so, Leah was finding out what Leer actually did. It lowered the opponents' defence stat, which was a good counter attack for growl.

Eventually, Snivy was overpowered by Blossom. "Oh no," Leah sighed, returning Snivy. "You did a good job, Snivy. Star, you're up!"  
"Starly!" Star flew in.

As Leaf pulled her Pokédex out, she asked her Bulbasaur if it would like to continue battling. "She could still turn it around, depending on what Leaf's other Pokémon is," Ash commented. Leaf was a good battler; Leah was not too bad either, however, things would be could be tricky she was starting to panic.

"Blossom! Use Sleep Powder!" Leaf called.

"Dodge! Star! Then tackle!" Leah said frantically.

Star flew around the sleepy powder and headed towards Blossom in a steep dive. As her wings started to glow, Misty cried, "That's wing attack!"  
"Wow! Well done, Star! You learnt a new move!" Leah said, pulling her Pokédex out and confirming what Misty had said.

"Oh no! Dodge, Blossom!" Leaf cried. But she was too late: Star got Blossom. "Now! Turn around and use it again!" Leah called, getting a little more confident.

"Stop Starly with vine whip! Then Growl!" Leaf called.  
"Stop!" Leah called. Star tried to get away, but Blossom grabbed her with the vines. "Get out of there, Star!"  
Star wriggled and managed a wing attack to get Blossom to let go. "Now! Use quick attack followed up by a quick wing attack!" Leah called.

"Star!" Star cried, doing as Leah said.

"Blossom!" Leaf cried as the attacks hit.  
"Bulbasaur is unable to battle, the win goes to Starly!" Misty called.

"Well done, Blossom. Okay! Polly! Go!" Leaf called, throwing a new Pokéball.

What emerged was a two-legged dark blue creature with a whitetail. On its belly was a white spot with a black spiral. _"Poliwag, the tadpole Pokémon on level seven. The direction of the spiral on the belly differs by area. It is more adapt at swimming than walking." _

"lookout, Leah! It's a water-type!" Ash called.

"Thanks, Ash! Use Steel wing, Star!" Leah ordered.

"Dodge! And use water sport!" Leaf asked.  
"Poliwag!" Poliwag cried, doing as asked.

"Try quick attack!" Leah asked.

"Dodge and use water gun!" Leaf called.

"Dodge! Wing attack while you're close! Then growl!" Leah commanded.

"No!" Leaf cried as Wing attack hit. She then gritted her teeth as Star used growl. She needed to get Star out of the air: hypnosis wouldn't work as Leah could just call for her Pokémon to dodge.

"Use bubble! And keep going until it hits!" Leaf commanded.

"Dodge!" Leah cried frantically.

Star did a got job of dodging, but she got hurt, and then the rest of the bubbles hit. "Now! Water gun!" Leaf called, grinning.

"No! Star!" Leah cried in despair.

After the attack hit, Misty glanced over, then said, "Starly is unable to battle! Leaf and Poliwag win!"  
"Good job, Star! You were wonderful," Leah sighed, walking over and picking Star up.

"Wow, Leah! You're doing really well! Didn't you say you knew nothing before you started? Not even what the Pokémon League was?" Leaf said brightly.

"Yeah. Here," Leah said, handing Leaf money for winning.

"No, you keep it. I still have a whole heap from winning at the gym and mum," Leaf said, refusing it.

"Are you sure?" Leah asked, surprised.

"Yes. Now, let's take our Pokémon inside," Leaf suggested.

"Honestly, what kind of loser has a Pokémon that doesn't listen to them? By the way, Ashy-boy: your payment for the battle. I look forward to seeing Brock beat you into a pulp tomorrow," Gary said, walking over to Ash and handing him some money.  
"Don't insult, Leah!" Ash growled as he took the money.

"I was just stating a fact," Gary shrugged. Then he turned around and went inside.

Half an hour later, Leah was sitting in the room she shared with Misty. Her two Pokémon were being healed by Nurse Joy and were going to be fine. Leah still felt bad, and she was down from what Gary had said. He was right as much as it hurt: she was a loser.

"Leah, don't cry because of what that twit said to you," Ash said from the left of Leah. Riolu was with him.

"Huh? I'm not crying!" Leah said, quickly brushing the tears away. "_Bad Lie," _Ash thought.

"_You're sad, your crying: I can tell," _Riolu said sagely.

"Don't lie please: Riolu says so and he can always tell. Gary is unpleasant to everyone, just he got a reaction from you," Ash said, not sure what to say to make his friend feel better.

"But he's right! I am a loser! I can't get Snivy to listen to me! I haven't even won a battle yet!" Leah said, sobbing.

"Sometimes Pokémon don't listen. If it doesn't change soon, let's call Professor Oak, he'll be able to help. And you've only had two or three battles. I'm sure Leaf and I will lose some battles. Even Gary; he has lost quite a few, according to Leaf: she's not even sure if he's won one yet. And you were so close to beating Leaf! Next time, it will be a different story, I'm sure," Ash said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"_it will be fine, Leah! You're a great trainer! Star is well trained!" _Riolu said. Ash translated what Riolu said to Leah.

"Maybe: thanks, Riolu, Ash. Leaf's very nice," Leah commented.

"She is," Ash nodded.

"You know, Gary reminds me of a boy who used to bully me at the orphanage I used to be at. But then, a new girl came and she stood up to him, she was the first person who seemed to like me: my first friend," Leah smiled fondly.

"What happened?" Ash asked, guessing that something must have happened.

"She got adopted, and they went to Sinnoh. I wish I knew something about where she went! I could get in contact!" Leah groaned.

"Sinnoh: every day we're getting more and more reason to go there. That, it's the home region of Riolu and Star, not to mention it has always been my favourite region," Ash said thoughtfully.  
"She's probably started travelling though, and maybe's in a different region!" Leah exclaimed.

"You'll see her again! The world is not a super-earth," Ash said brightly.

"Maybe," Leah begrudgingly agreed.

"How about we go and do some more training? Our Pokémon should be healed, and we can try and work out what Snivy's problem is!" Ash suggested.  
"Okay," Leah nodded. The two stood up, and ran outside with Riolu just a little behind, with Leah stopping to collect her Pokémon: they were fully healed and ready for action. The great thing about the Pokémon centre is, after most trainer battles the Pokémon were ready to battle again after being healed by Joy.

They trained for another hour, and they all grew up a few levels. Star was close to evolving. She had grown, and her features were starting to look more like the evolved form. Snivy still only listened to Leah half the time, and they were still in the dark about how to win it over. They were starting to work on learning wrap, which would be learnt in a few levels.

Pidgeotto was almost on level seventeen, and she was starting on learning roost. She was still a long way off evolving. Riolu had gone up a level, and Ash was still working on teaching Riolu force palm. Sadly, they were not getting far, and wouldn't until he had gone up another level. Riolu probably had a long way to go before he evolved.

Leaf and Misty had come out and did a bit of training, too. Leaf was getting excited, as the bulb on Blossom's back was beginning to look like a flower, and she was getting more blue in colour.

After training, they groomed their Pokémon: Ash shared his with Leah. Leah was reminded when she had more money if she ever got more, she needed to buy a grooming kit. All the Pokémon except Snivy liked being brushed: he glared at Leah and threatened to attack her.

At dinner, Ash asked Leaf, "Are you heading off tomorrow?"  
"Since you two are challenging the gym tomorrow and Gary is rechallenging, I thought I'd watch, then go," Leaf said.  
"Err," Leah said, freezing up at the mention of the gym.

"Leah, it's okay! You'll be fine! Losing is not the end of the world! Look at Gary! He's still just as arrogant!" Ash cried. He too was nervous, but it seemed he was nowhere near as nervous as Leah.

"I heard that, Ashy-boy! You might have beaten me, but your still light-years behind us! Neither of you stand a chance! As soon as I defeat Brock tomorrow, I will leave you all in the dust!" Gary cried from a nearby table.

"We'll see, Gary! After all, you've battled me twice and you lost both times!" Leaf shot back.

Meanwhile, Ash was muttering, "That Gary!" He was angry now, but not quite so angry that his aura spiked.

After they finished eating and chatted a bit more, they all said goodnight and went to bed. Star, Pidgeotto and Riolu all slept with their trainers while Snivy stayed in his ball.

The next morning, they had breakfast then headed out to the gym. The walk there was very tense. Ash and Leah were both really nervous, then because Gary was there, everyone was tense waiting for him to open his mouth and say something rude.

Upon arriving at the gym, the first thing that crossed everyone's mind except for Leaf and Gary's was it looked like a pile of rocks. Hanging above the door was 'Pewter Gym' on a miserable dark grey sign that would probably fall down in the next storm.

"Well, let's go in," Ash said, swallowing nervously. He went first, pushing the door open, and the rest followed.

"Hello?" everyone called as they entered. It was quite dark and empty looking: in the dark, they could see the gym's colour scheme was grey, and the battlefield right in the middle of the room was covered in rocks and boulders. Riolu, using his aura, could see there were stands right above the battlefield for them to watch.

"_Ash, there is an area above for us to watch from!" _Riolu informed Ash.

"_Thank, Riolu," _Ash nodded.

"Sta?" Star asked Leah, concerned.

"I'll be right," Leah said. Her Pokémon didn't believe her though.

"Welcome to the Pewter Gym," A male voice said, as a door from the other end of the room was opened. At the same time, all the lights went on and they could see everything clearer. The gym leader looked about eighteen and was quite tall. He was dressed in browny red pants, a brown shirt with a green vest over the top. He had very narrow eyes, and dark hair and skin.

"Hello!" they all greeted. Gary, Leaf and Misty all headed up to the area to watch from.

"Leaf, here to watch some friends? Gary, you're here for you rematch?" the unnamed gym leader asked Leaf and Gary as they walked upstairs.

"Yes," Leaf nodded.

"You bet!" Gary cried.

"I'm Ash Ketchum, and this is Leah Linn. We are here to battle you," Ash said nervously. Riolu put a calming paw on Ash's hand, and he immediately felt better.

"I see. I am Brock Bolderson, the gym leader. I specialise in Rock-type Pokémon. Which one of you will go first?" Brock said.

"I will," Ash decided. Leah had said she did not want to battle Brock first.

"Very well. Leah may sit on that bench by the door," Brock pointed, and Leah and Ash looked around to where he was pointing. "Or up in the stands with the others."  
"Star and I will sit on the bench," Leah said, nodding.

"My brother Forrest normally does the judging, but it is not a requirement to have a referee, so do you mind if we don't have one?" Brock asked Ash.

"That's fine," Ash nodded as Leah sat down. He then took a deep breath: this would be easy!  
"Fine. This is a two on two battle, and it will be over when both Pokémon on either side are unable to continue. The challenger may switch out. That fair?" Brock asked.

"Yep," Ash nodded.

"Begin," Brock nodded, throwing a pokéball. What came out was a bizarre creature that looked like a rock with two arm things and an eye on each. He and Leah pulled out their pokédexes.

_Binacle, the two-handed Pokémon: on level eight. Two Binacles live together on one rock. When they fight, one of them will move to a different rock."_

_"_And a water/rock-type. Go, Riolu," Ash said.

_"Ash, let's keep him on his toes by talking like this," _Riolu suggested.

"_Without you opening the link, I have no idea how," _Ash said honestly.

_"Just concentrate on me, and when giving me orders, concentrate on my aura and don't open your mouth," _Riolu explained.

"You make the first move, Ash," Brock called.

"Right," Ash nodded. Then he tried to talk to Riolu, _"Get in close and use Crunch!" _It finally went through after two minutes of trying._  
_Riolu nodded and ran forward.

"What?! Riolu is attacking without a command?!" Gary exclaimed.

"Unless Ash has aura…" Leaf said. Binacle used withdraw just before Riolu hit.

"Now! Use Stone Edge, Binacle! Make it a wide area covering attack!" Brock called.

"_Dodge!" _Ash cried, but it didn't get through. Luckily, Riolu got the impression of what Ash wanted and did a backflip.

"Use Stone Edge again!" Brock ordered.

"_Dodge!" _Ash said. This time it got through. Riolu dodged the attack with another backflip, however, as he came down, he still got hit.

"Now! Shell Smash!" Brock asked.

"_Quick! Quick Attack!"_ Ash commanded.

"Wait until it gets close and water gun!" Brock said as he saw Riolu jump forward.

_"Ash?" _Riolu asked.

"_Stop! Dodge! If that doesn't work, use Counter!" _Ash said to Riolu.

As Riolu used counter, his body was surrounded by a glow. After the attack hit, he bound forward with counter. "Use Crunch!" Ash asked.

Riolu quickly bit onto Binacle's body before he had a chance to move. "Get it off with Scratch!" Brock cried.

"_Dodge!" _Ash exclaimed.

Riolu couldn't really dodge, so he took the hit and cried in pain. "_Use Crunch again while you're close! Come on!" _Ash cried, trying to get Riolu to try and recover a bit faster from the attack from Binacle.

"Try and get it off with Scratch!" Brock exclaimed, sounding frantic.

"Dodge!" Ash said. Riolu let go and back flicked backward, then Riolu attacked with feint.  
"Use Stone Edge!" Brock commanded.

"_Dodge!" _Ash called.  
Riolu tried to dodge, but get hit again. He struggled with dodging stone edge, so Ash didn't mind too much. It was hard to predict where the stones would go, as they were released in odd patterns.

"Use Crunch!" Ash called.

"Scratch!" Brock said.

"_Use Endure to not let go," _Ash asked as Riolu landed his jaw on Binacle's left head/arm.

"Bin!" Binacle cried in pain.

When Riolu let go, Ash saw Binacle fall back. Ash then asked for a quick attack. "_Use Crunch!" _Ash asked. However, it didn't get through. "Use water gun point blank!" Brock asked.

"Dodge!" Ash cried a little too late.

"Counter!" Ash then quickly followed up. That hit. Ash then asked for Feint followed up by crunch. "Looks like Binacle is unable to battle!" Misty called as Binacle fell back after Riolu let go.

"Yes. Well done, Ash," Brock nodded, returning Binacle. Then he released another Pokémon, a grey rock Pokémon who Ash recognised as Geodude. Ash and Leah registered Geodude.

´_Geodude, the rock Pokémon. Its round body makes it easy to pick up, but it's hard and heavy. It's dangerous to play with them as if they were snowballs. Rock/Ground-type on level twelve."  
_"You start this time, Brock!" Ash cried. He noticed an eleven-year-old boy enter the room.

"I'll referee!" he said.

"Alright. Stone Edge!" Brock called.

"_Dodge, Riolu!" _Ash said.

Riolu dodged, then Ash said, "_Use quick attack then crunch."  
_However, that didn't go through. "Use Defence Curl!" Brock called.

"Use Quick attack!" Ash called.

"Rollout!" Brock ordered.

"_Dodge!" _Ash said frantically via aura.

Riolu tried to dodge, but Geodude came back, and then again and again: Ash could only watch in horror. Ash then cried Quick attack and crunch, however, Goedude dodged.

"He managed to defeat one Pokémon! That's not fair!" Gary cried. He was ranting.

"Shut up, Gary!" Leaf said, glaring at Gary. He was irritating her. Gary now moved onto gloating about the fact Ash was looking like he was going to lose as Riolu was hit by another series of Rollouts.

Leah meanwhile, was watching in awe of Ash and Riolu as Riolu countered with counter. Ash gritted his teeth: this was getting hard. He then called for Riolu to use endure and then crunch as Geodude used tackle.

"Use Rock Polish!" Brock ordered.

"Use Quick Attack, then Crunch again!" Ash called.

"Stone Edge!" Brock said quickly as Geodude finished using Rock Polish.

"Riolu!" Ash cried.

"Ri!" Riolu cried in pain.

"Riolu is unable to battle," the young man said. Ash went over and picked Riolu up.

"Great job, friend. You did great," Ash said to Riolu.

"_Thanks, Ash. You did well, too," _Riolu said, half awake.

"I'll look after Riolu: I have a potion or two," Leah offered.

"Thanks," Ash nodded, handing Riolu over to Leah.  
"Sta," Star nodded. She was telling Riolu he was doing well.

"Pidgeotto, come out!" Ash said, releasing Pidgeotto.  
"What's he up to?!" Gary asked.

"He only has the two," Misty said in a monotone.

"Begin!" The eleven-year-old exclaimed.  
"Pidgeotto, use Gust!" Ash cried.

"Dodge, Geodude! Then use rollout!" Brock called.

"Geo!" Geodude said as it dodged.

"Use Wing Attack!" Ash called.

"Dodge! Stone Edge!" Brock called.

"Dodge then Steel Wing!" Ash called. He knew it wouldn't have full effect, but it would deal damage. While she watched, Leah did some light healing with Riolu to take the edge off.

"Dodge it!" Brock bristled.

Goedude tried to dodge, but Pidgeotto was faster and hit Goedude. "Grab it and throw it to the ground!" Brock called.

"Get out of there!" Ash cried.

Goedude grabbed Pidgeotto and threw her to the ground. Pidgeotto flew off as soon as Geodude moved away. Gary was looking very sour as Pidgeotto then went on to land two more steel wings. Geodude then used stone edge: Ash asked for her to counter with gust then to fly over.

"Finish it! Quick attack with Steel Wing!" Ash called.

"Dodge! Use tackle!" Brock said, realising Geodude was not going to dodge.

Both Pokémon hit, then hit again. On a third clash, Pidgeotto gracefully avoided the attack then hit Geodude in the back with Steel wing, sending Geodude to the ground.

"Geodude is unable to battle: the challenger wins!" the young boy cried.

"Well done, Ash," Brock nodded, returning Geodude.

"Thank you," Ash said. Then he said to Pidgeotto, holding his arm out for her to land on it, "Thank you, Pidgeotto! You did amazing!"

Riolu got up and ran over. "_Well done, Ash, Pidgeotto! We won!" _he cried.

"Yes, we did! You too: thanks, Riolu," Ash said, and Pidgeotto said something similar.

"Forrest, can you take my Pokémon to be healed?" Brock asked the brown-haired boy. The boy, Forrest, nodded, so Brock went over to him and handed over two Pokéballs. Brock then walked over to Ash, opening a pocket of his vest while Forrest left the room.

"Here's your badge: the boulder badge," Brock said, handing Ash a stone shaped badge.

"Alright: thanks!" Ash said excitedly. Then he turned and posed with his Pokémon, saying, "We got the boulder badge!"  
"Well done, Ash," Leah said, walking over. Ash breathed a sigh of relief then.  
"Well done!" Leaf and Misty called. Gary meanwhile sat there looking put out that Ash had beaten Brock first try: he was fuming.

"Here's a TM, too: Stone Edge. There will be a pocket in your bag for TMs; put it in there. Pull the TM out and scan it over the Pokéball, and you'll be able to see the Pokémon through the disk if the Pokémon is able to learn it," Brock said, handing a brown disk over to Ask.  
"Thanks a bunch!" Ash said brightly as he took it.

"You ready to go, Leah?" Brock asked. Ash and Leah were surprised by his eagerness to get going.

"Yes, sure. Are you going to head back, Ash?" Leah asked Ash quietly. Ash put his TM away.

"I'm going to stay and watch. Is that alright, Pidgeotto, Riolu?" Ash asked his Pokémon, and they both nodded. Neither had a problem.

"Alright, two on two again, then," Brock nodded. He walked to the other end of the field. Forrest came in at that moment.

"Will you please referee, Forrest?" Brock asked the boy.

"Yes, Brock," Forrest nodded.  
"Snivy, I need your help!" Leah cried, releasing her grass snake.

"You don't see them every day," Brock commented. Then he released his Pokémon: another Geodude.

"Begin! Challenger attacks first," Forrest cried.

"Use Vine Whip!" Leah called.

"Dodge!" Brock called. However, there was no need as Snivy ignored Leah.

"Use tackle!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge!" Leah cried. Snivy ignored her again.

"Use Vine Whip again!" Leah commanded frantically.

Snivy listened this time: he attacked and kept attacking until he hit Geodude, which did a lot of damage.

"Use Rock Polish, Geodude!" Brock ordered.

"Stop it with tackle!" Leah asked.

Snivy didn't listen and instead attacked Leah. Leah had gotten good at dodging Snivy's attacks by now. "Now! Stone Edge Again!" Brock ordered, surprised about the disobedience.

"Dodge!" Leah cried.

Snivy tried to dodge, however Geodude was so much faster, all he could really do was watch the attack come hurtling towards him at lightning speed. "Snivy!" Leah cried panicked.

"Tackle!" Leah exclaimed. Ash and Misty could tell Leah was starting to lose it now.

Snivy again didn't listen and turned his nose up. "Use Vine Whip!" Leah asked frantically.

"Leah! Concentrate! You can't win in this state!" Ash called.

"Yes, that's right," Leah said, shaking her head. She gave herself a small whack.

Snivy attacked, but as soon as it hit, Geodude retaliated with Stone Edge. "Leer!" Leah called.

Snivy leered, which had the desired effect. Then Leah asked for Vine Whip, but Snivy lashed at Leah again. Ash shook his head: what as wrong with that Pokémon? Suddenly, a green aura sprang to life around Snivy, and vines grew around its body.

"That's overgrow! All grass-type moves have been raised! But he doesn't have much strength left!" Ash called to Leah.

"Use Wrap!" Leah asked.

Snivy extended his vine and wrapped it around Geodude. "try and escape!" Brock called frantically.

"Use vine whip!" Leah cried, getting some confidence.

"Ge!" Geodude cried in pain.

"Use Stone Edge!" Brock called as Geodude flinched from the Wrap.

"Dodge!" Leah exclaimed with no luck. Snivy used wrap, when he should have dodged as another stone edge came towards him.

"Snivy is unable to battle: Geodude wins!" Forrest cried.

"Yaya!" voices cried from the stands. Ash and Leah jumped, then looked up to see a whole heap of kids watching. All of them and Forrest looked like Brock, so Ash wondered if they were all related. If so, what a big family!

"Return, Snivy, you did well," Leah sighed, returning Snivy.

"It's up to you, Star! Get them while's their weak!" Leah cried, moving her shoulder as Star took to the air.

"Begin!" Forrest exclaimed.

"Use growl!" Leah called.

"Use Stone Edge!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge!" Leah shouted.

"Star!" Star cried, avoiding the stones. She had been watching Pidgeotto dodge.

"Wow! Star was watching Pidgeotto!" Misty said.

"Yeah, looks that way," Leaf nodded as Leah asked for Steel Wing.

Geodude just managed to dodge Steal Wing, but it then got wracked on the back with Wing Attack. Very sneaky move. Leah asked for another Steel Wing, while Brock asked Geodude to counter with tackle.

Both Pokémon were hit, however, both were flung back. "Use Rollout!" Brock ordered.

"Now Dodge and send it away with Steel Wing!" Leah asked.

Star did as Leah asked, and as the Steel Wing hit, Geodude fell to the ground. "Geodude is unable to battle!" Forrest cried.

"Good job, Geodude. You have some strong Pokémon there, Leah," Brock commented. "Go, Onix!"  
He released a long rock Pokémon, which looked like a snake. Leah registered the Pokémon, and it was called Onix.

"Use Quick attack!" Leah cried.

"Dodge and Use Rock Tomb!" Brock commanded calmly.

"Get out of there!" Leah cried. Star did a steep climb up.  
"Use Stone edge, rapid fire!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge! Then growl!" Leah asked.

Star dodged all except for the last one, as she had lost concentration as she was using growl at the same time. Then Brock asked for curse while Leah asked for Steel Wing. Brock then asked for Onix to intercept with Rock Throw.

The battle went on like that for a few more turns. "Use Stone Edge to finish it!" Brock cried, seeing Star was very tired.

"Star! No! Dodge!" Leah cried in despair.

Star dodged, but another hit and she was just about done for. Leah had lost it by this point. "Use Stone Edge again!" Brock said, picking up on Leah losing her nerve and confidence.

"Dodge!" Leah cried desperately.

"Star!" Star quickly dodged.

"Steel Wing!" Leah cried.

"Dodge! Use Stone Edge!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge!" Leah exclaimed.

Star managed to dodge, but then she was wrapped up in bind. "Try and get out of there!" Leah called. Stay calm, stay calm.

"Don't let go!" Brock ordered as Star tried to use Steel Wing.

Five minutes past of Star trying to attack and struggling to break free. When she finally did, she was very close to fainting. "Stone Edge to finish it!" Brock cried.

"Stop! Please!" Leah begged, covering her face.

"Stop, Onix," Brock said. However, it was too late to cancel the attack: Star was sent lightly into the wall behind Leah, next to the bench Ash, Pidgeotto and Riolu had been sitting on. They all flinched: it could have been a lot harder though.

"Star!" Leah cried, running over and picking Star up.

"Starly is unable to battle, Brock wins! Forrest cried. There was cheering in the crowd.

"Keep training and try to get Snivy to listen to you, and then come back. You'll win then," Brock said to Leah. He then thanked Onix and returned it.

"Okay, thanks," Leah nodded quietly. Meanwhile, Gary was trying not to laugh. He was gleeful: Ash hadn't lost, but his pathetic friend had, which was enough victory for him. A small bit of Gary was feeling awful for being so mean to Leah and Ash.

"Come on, let's get Star and Snivy to the Pokémon centre," Ash said as Leah walked over to him. He had stood up by now.

"Thanks," Leah said to the gym leader: she quickly handed him the money for losing. She grabbed her bag and ran out. Ash thanked Brock, then he and his Pokémon followed after grabbing his bag and checking in with Misty. She was going to stay and watch Gary.

Ash and his Pokémon walked hurriedly, but not too fast. Riolu was quite slow, but he refused to go in his ball or be carried. Leah was probably almost at the centre: Ash hoped Star was going to be alright. She had been pretty badly injured, but she should be fine with the speed Leah rushed off at.

* * *

**Wow, a monster of a chapter. I normally like to have them below the five thousand mark, but this couldn't really be split. I think I've made Gary a bit more unpleasent then canon, but I like him so he will slowly get over himself, as hinted in this chapter. We won't see him or Leaf for a few chapters now, though. **

**They will travel with Leaf a bit, but that will be close to Vermillion City. They will travel a little bit with Gary, but that's a way off. Also, is there any character you'd like a backstory for? I'll try and create one for every gym leader and character who is not minor.**

**That will be all. Next update will be in a similar format to this one. I can't guarantee when, but within two months I'll aim for. Some days I get no writing in, some days I get heaps: that's just how it rolls *shrugs.***

**And I promise, as the story goes on and the characters get stronger, the gym battles will get longer, and hopefully more interesting.**

**Bye, bye!**


	5. Winning Snivy's trust and the Elite

**Chapter 5: Winning Snivy's trust and the elite**

**Next update! The next one will probably be half a week away, I expect. This chapter is a bit of a filler, mind you. In length, that is. Important things happen in the chapter though. Ash get's a new Pokémon! Yay!**

**Ash:  
Riolu, Pidgeotto**

**Leah:  
Star (Starly), Snivy**

**Leaf:  
Blossom (Bulbasaur), Polly (Poliwag)**

**Gary:  
Squirtle, Pidgey**

**Misty:  
Staryu, Starmie, Goldeen**

**Brock:  
Onix, Geodude, Binacle**

**Anyone I've missed? Do you want gender's added for the Pokémon on the list? Do you want a list of people making appearances where they don't appear in TV series and games?**

* * *

Upon entering the Pokémon centre, Ash returned both his Pokémon then handed them over to Nurse Joy. "Can you please heal my Pokémon, Nurse Joy?" Ash asked her, handing the two pokéballs over.

"Sure, Ash. Did you battle Brock?" She asked, taking the Pokéballs.

"Yep," Ash said proudly, showing off his badge.

"Well done," Nurse Joy nodded as she placed his Pokémon on a tray. The nurse then handed them over to Chancy, who took them off to be healed.

"Thanks. Is Leah here?" Ash asked, wanting to catch up with his friend.

"Yes: down the hall there. She's outside the emergency room her Pokémon are in," Nurse Joy nodded, pointing to a corridor.

"They'll be alright, though?" Ash asked, concerned.

"Yes: they were badly beaten up, but nothing life-threaten rose due to your friends' haste to get them here," Nurse Joy nodded, heading off to heal Ash's Pokémon.

Ash nodded, then he walked toward the corridor Nurse Joy had pointed to. After he had been walking for a while, Ash spotted Leah staring at the floor in front of her, her straw hat on her lap. She was looking very sad.

"How are they?" Ash asked. Leah jumped almost to a standing position, then looked up.

"Oh! Hi, Ash. They'll recover. I can collect them this evening, but no battling until tomorrow afternoon, at the earliest," Leah responded downly. She was upset about how hurt her Pokémon were.

"Leah, it's okay! You lost, but you'll win next time," Ash said encouragingly.

"I wish I could have your enthusiasm, but I'm a horrible trainer! Why else would Snivy not listen to me?!" Leah wailed.

"It happens, Leah: everyone loses and has a problem Pokémon. If it weren't for that, you would have won!" Ash exclaimed.

"You think so?" Leah asked, looking at Ash hopefully.

"Yes, I do," Ash nodded.

"Then those things Gary said to me: they hurt!" Leah said, crying. Then she said, after calming down slightly, "Every day he reminds me of that bully, the years of misery: all I had at that orphanage! That bully used to always depress me, but then that new girl arrived."  
"Was she your friend?" Ash asked.

"Yes, she is, was: she was called Mars. She was great: she always had a way to make you feel better. She told me I was worth ten of him," Leah said, having a small smile.

"And that's true: your worth ten of Gary, too!" Ash declared.

"Thanks, Ash," Leah said, blushing slightly. Then she said, "I shouldn't be so pessimistic about us still being friends, because her last words when we parted were: friendships last forever. Then she told me to ignore the bully because I'm worth ten of him."

_"_Wow, she sounds cool. Great minds think alike, Leah! That is what I said, after all!" Ash nodded.

"Sure was," Leah nodded.

"As soon as your Pokémon are better, we will ring Professor Oak and ask how we're going to get Snivy to listen to you. Then we'll do special training! Yeah!" Ash cried, jumping up. Then he got a face full of the bubble attack. Ash without thinking, grabbed a Pokéball and threw it at the pot-plant the bubble came from.

There was a flash of light, and a few seconds later he heard the capture dong. "I, I caught something," Ash said, standing there in shock. He had not expected that.

"Wow! I wonder what a wild Pokémon was doing in here?" Leah wondered.

Ash walked over to where his Pokéball landed and picked it up. As he returned, he asked, "Shall we see what it is?"  
"Why not?" Leah shrugged.

"Come out!" Ash said, throwing the pokéball. What came out was a blue, frog-like Pokémon, with bubbles around its neck.

"What's that Pokémon?" Leah said, pulling her Pokédex out.

"_Froakie, the bubble frog Pokémon._

_It secretes flexible bubbles from its chest and back. The bubbles reduce the damage it would otherwise take when attacked."_

"Wow! A Froakie! It's male, has the ability is torrent, and it knows pound, growl and bubble!" Ash exclaimed, looking at his Pokédex.

"Froakie?" Leah questioned, tilting her head.

"It's a Kalos starter. I still don't get what it was doing here, though," Ash said, scratching his head.

"Fro?" Froakie said, looking up at Ash.

"Hi, Froakie, I'm Ash, and I'm the one who caught you. I am going to become a Pokémon master; would you like to help me? You can always be released if you don't want to come," Ash offered.

Froakie thought for a moment, then it nodded and pointed to his Pokéball. "Really? Great! You won't regret it!" Ash said, picking Froakie up and twirling it around.

"Great job, Ash," Leah nodded shyly.

"Thanks!" Ash smiled.

"Hey, Ash: if you want to head on ahead, that's fine. I can stay and catch up, or always come back another time," Leah said.

"I don't mind waiting: it's fine! I can do some training with Froakie and my other Pokémon," Ash said, waving it off. He didn't mind waiting, and if the roles were reversed, he had a feeling Leah would stick around until he got his badge.

A few minutes later, Leah was allowed to go and see her Pokémon. She cried, and Star tried to comfort her while Snivy stood there watching her.

"Look you two, if you don't want to be my Pokémon, that's fine: tell me now and I'll release you as soon as you get out of here," Leah said solemnly.

"Star! Starly!" Star cried angrily, shaking her head. She was saying don't give up so easily, and don't dare release me. Snivy also shook his head to say no to a release.

"What? You both want to stay?" Leah asked, surprised. Both Pokémon nodded.

That evening, Ash and Leah collected their Pokémon from Nurse Joy and allowed them to be out of their pokéballs. Froakie and Riolu got on like a house on fire, and Pidgeotto accepted him.

They had caught up with Misty and said goodbye to Leaf just a bit earlier. Apparently, Gary had won his battle and was going to head off that evening. Leaf left after saying goodbye to them all. Misty had been introduced to Froakie, and then they sat around talking until the evening.

At the moment, Ash, Misty and Leah along with all their Pokémon except for Goldeen, were walking into the cafeteria for dinner. Leah decided they would eat first then go and talk to Professor Oak, or do it in the morning. The other two had agreed.

However, just as they entered, all of them had to jump out of the way of a stampede of screaming fangirls and boys. "What the?" Leah cried.

"Sniv!" Snivy agreed.

"Star!" Star also agreed.

"Heh!"  
"Heh!"  
"Ri!"  
"Fro!"  
PIdg!" the other Pokémon all agreed.

"What was that about?" Ash asked as he stood up again.

"No idea. Huh? Oh my god! I know!" Misty said, looking around and spotting a blonde man dressed in white. Her eyes suddenly went all starry.

"Misty, are you alright?" Leah asked, confused by Misty's reaction to a person.

"Yes! It's Siebold! The water master of the Kalos Elite Four!" Misty exclaimed, pointing to the blonde man at a table near where they got food. Said table was being currently swarmed by fans.

"Really?" Ash said, looking shocked.

"Elite four? They're supposed to be strong trainers, right?" Leah asked, and the other two nodded.

"No one wants to miss a chance to meet one, either. Come on!" Misty exclaimed, running over to get into the cue.

"Shall we go too?" Leah asked timidly.

"Yeah: why not?" Ash nodded, excited at the prospect to meet someone as powerful as Siebold. He didn't know much about the man except he was a water trainer and from Kalos, that was it.

They all walked over and got in the cue. When it was their turn to meet Siebold, he looked at them all and their Pokémon as they did the first general greetings. Ash and Leah found it unnerving.

"So that's what happened to Froakie," He said, seeing Ash's Froakie.

"Froakie!" Froakie waved.

"Huh?" Ash, Leah and Misty all said, confused.  
Siebold smiled. "That little Froakie is one of my Greninja's offspring, whom I was going to hand him over to the professor to give to a beginner trainer. However, this one ran off when we arrived here," he explained.

"Why would he do that?" Ash asked.

"He's just an adventurous spirit," Siebold shrugged.

Misty then asked a whole heap of questions about water-type Pokémon and the answers were of interest to all three of them.

"Remember, battling is an art. The style you create is your art of battle, and combinations are part of that. Another important factor is a good bond between Pokémon and trainer," Siebold said, then he looked at Star, Riolu, Snivy, Froakie, Pidgeotto, Staryu and Starmie. "Ash, you have a good bound with all your Pokémon, with the acceptation of Froakie whom you've just met. Misty, you have a strong bond with the two I can see, especially Starmie. Leah, you and Starly have a good bound, however, I can see you still have a long way to go with Snivy."

"Yes. He doesn't listen to me to half the time, and that has been the case since I caught him a little while ago!" Leah exclaimed.

"I have not trained many grass-types, however, everyone says that wild Snivy's are hostile, and can take a bit of work to come around. Try talking with it, and get it to watch you and Starly train, and spend time trying to become friendly," Siebold suggested.

"Really? I've never heard that" Ash said, curious.

"Unova starters are not that well known in most regions," the elite four member said shrugging.

"Okay, thank you so much," Leah nodded.

"I shall take my leave now. Good luck with your goals and dreams," Siebold said, standing up.  
"Thank you, it was great to meet you," Ash nodded.

"Yes, sure was. Thanks," Leah nodded.

"Thank you for answering all my questions," Misty nodded, still a little excited.

"The pleasure is all mine. It was nice to speak to trainers with potential," Siebold nodded. Then he left the room.

Ash, Leah and Misty ordered dinner then sat down, then they discussed what they had learnt. Leah and the other two discussed how they were going to get Snivy to listen to Leah. They decided to leave the ringing of the Professor, for now.

################

The next morning after breakfast, they went to the Pokémart to shop. Ash brought a large variety of healing items, Pokémon treats and food, and a few other handy things along with Pokéballs, while Misty stocked up on healing items. Leah brought a couple more healing items; a couple of balls, and some grass-type and Flying-type Pokémon treats and food: that basically cleaned her out.

They then went to a supermarket to get some mere food for on the road. While they were there, they ran into Brock. "Hi, Brock!" Ash greeted brightly.

"Hi," Leah and Misty nodded.

"Hello," Brock nodded.

"That's a lot of food," Ash commented.

"Well, I have all my siblings to feed," Brock stated simply.

"How many do you have?" Misty asked, curious.

"Eight," Brock shrugged.

"Eight? Ruddy hell!" Ash exclaimed, his eyes widening. Leah was worried for a moment he might faint.

"Yeah, I know. I love them very much; however, I'd love to go and explore the world and learn how to become a Pokémon Breeder," Brock sighed.

"But you're a gym leader, so you can't?" Misty finished.

"Yes, and there are my siblings. My father was actually the gym leader, but since he left, I have had all this to look after," Brock shrugged.

"Okay," Ash nodded. They exchanged a few more words.

"We will see you in a day or so," Ash said finally. They then split ways.

Upon returning to the Pokémon centre, Leah had her chat with Snivy outside in the training area. They had given their Pokémon some treats, and now Misty was a short distance away, training with Goldeen. Ash and Riolu were close so they could understand what was being said. "Thanks for this, Ash," Leah said gratefully.  
"No Problem! Glad we can help!" Ash said brightly.  
"_Yes, exactly," _Riolu nodded.

"Right. Snivy, I am not going to force it, but I'd like for us to be friends, and for you to listen to me. If you want to stay, I would really like that. You don't have to like me, just to listen to me is all I ask. Considering you didn't want to be released, there is a limited number of things I can do with you unless you listen to my commands in battle. Please, please," Leah said, begging.

"Sni, Snivy," Snivy said. Then Riolu spoke to Ash.

"Snivy says he'll listen to your commands if it means that much to you, and you do have a point. However, he wants you to beat him in another battle." Ash translated.

"What? Just like that?" Leah said in disbelief.

"Well, you haven't really chatted to Snivy. Maybe if you'd done that at the beginning, he would have always listened to you," Ash said. "But it can't be helped; we are beginners, we are supposed to learn from things like this."

"Okay. You have yourself a deal, Snivy," Leah nodded.

"Considering you still can't battle with them, let's brush them. Misty left her brushes over here with us," Ash suggested, and Leah nodded.

Including Froakie, all their Pokémon enjoyed being brushed, except for Snivy. That was stretching the bounds of friendship at this point in time. After that, Ash decided to start training Froakie, and he did a bit of training with his other Pokémon alongside.

First, he got them all to do some speed and endurance training, running around and dodging attacks that were sent their way. All three were pretty speedy Pokémon, so they quickly went to work on power. Power training, they basically practised their attacks, trying to be as strong as possible.

Then they moved onto defence. They had to take as many hits as possible, and by the time they got to the end, all three of them were pretty tired. Riolu learnt Force Palm though, which Ash was very excited about. Froakie learnt Quick Attack and Ash wanted to start Froakie on Strength. Pidgeotto mastered steel wing, and he had an attack lined up for her to learn.

When they finished training, Ash took them all in to be healed, while he, Leah and Misty had their lunch. After lunch, Ash decided to start Froakie on learning Strength, Pidgeotto was starting to learn ominous wind, and Riolu started to learn Power-up Punch.

Riolu and Froakie made quite a bit of progress with their moves, however, Pidgeotto was struggling on how to work out how to channel and create spiritual energy.

As it got late in the afternoon, Leah decided it was time for the battle between her Pokémon. Star easily won, and learnt double team! Snivy agreed he would listen to Leah from now on. She and Ash then got to some combined training, and they did some practice battles. All afternoon, Snivy did as Leah asked, with once or twice attacking her instead or ignoring her. Not perfect, but a big improvement.

They trained the next day, too. Leah's Pokémon joined Ash's in their speed, endurance, power and defence training. Pidgeotto and Star had a sky battle, and Snivy and Riolu battle each other.

That evening, Ash asked, "Do you feel confident to try the gym again tomorrow?"  
"Not really: but I'll give it a go," Leah said timidly.

"it will be fine! Snivy listens to you now," Misty said reassuringly.

"Yeah, plus all that training we did together," Ash added.

"Thanks, guys," Leah said smiling. She didn't know what she would do without those two.

* * *

**What do you think? Next chapter is the rematch and heading to Mt Moon, where we have another character making a special appearance. I choice Siebold because I thought it was a nice touch with Froakie, and it was convenient. After all, Elite Four are the example, the people trainers will look to.**

**Anyway, don't forget there is a poll that needs your input! Star will evolve soon! However, others won't evolve until after Mt Moon. Even then, Riolu and Pidgeotto are still a bit off.**

**Also, I have still got to work out Leah's heritage and pairing, lol! Laterz!**


	6. A rematch

**Chapter 6: A rematch**

**Alright, it is a little longer then I said, isn't it? Well, my computer started to go funny, so I took it to the shop, and they tried to fix it, but decided it was beyond help, so I had to wait for a new one, and that was not without complications. Anyway, the next chapter is here.**

**Review responses:**

**thor94: I can do that. The only reason Star is bigger is so that other mainsh characters can have the species, but I could do that, and might have been planning, not sure, really. Thanks though!**

**Vindrago: it's funny, because that was my first idea. But then I wasn't sure and had other ideas. Thanks.**

* * *

In the morning the next day, the three of them walked to the gym after having breakfast. Before that, Leah and her Pokémon had done some warm-up training with Ash. Snivy continued to listen to Leah most the time, with the odd striking out at her or moment where he didn't listen.

Compared to last time, the walk to the gym was very relaxed and calm. That's what not having Gary around does for you. Star was seated on Leah's shoulder, Riolu and Starmie walked next to their trainers, and Froakie sat on Ash's shoulder. He seemed quite excited about the idea of watching Leah's match.

"I wonder if we will see Siebold again?" Ash asked randomly.

"Probably. After all, a lot of gym leaders, Elite Four members, and champions for that matter, do visit other regions quite frequently, they're entitled to. Despite their titles, they're still trainers, and need some time to go off and travel: how else are they to get stronger?" Misty said.

"What happens when a champion wants to go on holiday and travel?" Leah asked.

"The strongest elite four-member takes over," Misty replied simply.

A few minutes later, they were standing outside the gym, again. After Leah had stopped for five minutes and had shown no inclination to move, Ash dragged her forward and opened the gym's door before pushing Leah in.

"Hey!" she cried, as Ash did so. Ash and Misty followed her in.

"Your back for a rematch?" the voice of Brock rang through the room after Misty had shut the door.

All the lights were on to start with, and Brock was seated at the far end of the hall as if he was/is meditating, but not really. It was strange to see someone voluntarily seated on the ground: Ash wondered why he didn't bring a chair in.

"Ye-yes I am," Leah nodded nervously.

"_Don't be nervous, Leah," _Riolu said. Ash translated the message, then, he, Misty and their Pokémon went upstairs to watch the battle. As Brock stood up and explained the rules again, Froakie jumped into the railing to have a better view, or so Ash thought.

"Let's begin, then," Brock nodded, as he and Leah moved to their spots at each end of the field.

"Snivy, I need your help!" Leah cried, releasing the grass-snake.

"Geodude! Go!" Brock called, releasing the same Pokémon as last time. "Have the first move, Leah."

"Okay, Snivy, use Vine Whip!" Leah called.

"Sni," Snivy nodded, using the move. Geodude dodged, then Leah asked for another vine whip.

"I see he is listening to you. It will take more than that to win my badge, though. Geodude, grab those vines!" Brock called.

"Get out of there!" Leah cried to no avail. Geodude grabbed the vines before Snivy could even change the direction he was heading. "Try and break free!"  
"Don't let go!" Brock ordered as Snivy tried to wiggle free.

"Alright! Leer!" Leah said, seeing Snivy could not shake his vines free.

"Toss Snivy around, Geodude!" Brock commanded. He was a little late to stop the grass-snake from using Leer, though.

Geodude tossed Snivy around, then went to use Rollout. Leah asked for Snivy to dodge, then vine whip. He dodged but didn't use the attack, so Leah asked again for the attack, and he listened fully at that time. Because she was having an easier time, Leah was actually finding herself enjoying the battle.

"What do you think so far, Froakie?" Ash asked as Leah called for wrap as Snivy whacked Geodude with Vine Whip.

"Fro, froakie!" Froakie said.  
"_He says he can't wait to have a gym battle," _Riolu said as Snivy tried to use wrap on Geodude.

"That's good because I can't wait to use you!" Ash said to Froakie. Brock asked for Stone Edge.

As Snivy dodged Stone edge, Misty said, "It's funny what Siebold said about the species, wasn't it?"  
"About them just being naturally hostile if born in the wild? I suppose: I certainly have not heard of it before. I mean, trainers can have a hard time with Pokémon, but it's usually for more of a reason than that," Ash agreed.

"Well, some Pokémon can be hard to befriend and train," Misty pointed out.

"But not as if they didn't like being captured. How did Siebold know so much about Snivy's species, anyway?" Ash wondered.

"I suppose Unova is closer to Kalos then Kanto: because Elite Four generally specialise in a type, they need to know a lot about the type and super-effective against their preferred Pokémon, so they'll be able to defeat a trainer with potentially six grass-types. And any trainer can ask for advice for any Pokémon, too.

"Then again, to be in the elite four, you are expected to know a lot about all Pokémon," Misty said as Geodude dodged one of Snivy's attacks, and used stone edge. Leah asked for another move, but Snivy almost didn't listen but decided to use vine whip at the last minute, as she had asked.

"Okay. Kind of like being a Pokémon Master then! Considering you know all this, are you wanting to become an elite four-member one day?" Ash asked as Snivy didn't dodge a rollout attack.

"Yes, I am aiming for that, actually. But that's probably years off yet," Misty sighed.

"Use Leer, Snivy! Then tackle!" Leah cried.

Snivy used Leer, then flew at Geodude with tackle. "Counter with Brick Break!" Brock called.

Both attacks hit, and there were a few seconds with both Pokémon holding their attacks for a while. When they broke, Leah asked for a Vine Whip and Brock asked for Stone Edge. They then asked for the Pokémon to dodge the attacks with Geodude dodging, and Snivy trying to hit as many rocks back as possible. Leah noted it and thought Snivy had a good thing going there.

While Geodude dodged the vine whip, it didn't manage to dodge the stones Snivy had sent back, and Snivy didn't hit back all of the stone edge's stones, and couldn't dodge all the remaining ones, he dodged a few though. Geodude fainted when the stones had been dealt with, and Snivy was hanging on by a thread.

"Geodude is unable to battle," Brock said, returning his Pokémon. As he got another ball out, Snivy fell to the ground, also, showing the signs of a fainted Pokémon. "Both Pokémon are unable to battle," Brock then said.

"Good work, Snivy. You did great! Thanks for listening," Leah said, returning Snivy.

"Star, I need your help," Leah said, looking to her starter.

"Starly!" Star cried, taking to the air.

"Onix! Go!" Brock called, releasing the rock-snake.

Up in the stands, Froakie was looking very perky. He was enjoying the battle, and with Ash continuing to say he would get to battle in one of these, he was very glad he had decided to go with Ash.

Brock asked Onix to use bind straight off the bat. Leah asked for Double Team, then Steel Wing. The idea was, Onix wouldn't have enough time to work out which was the real one before it had to think about dodging, and due to its shape hopefully it would struggle to dodge. And it worked well.

Brock then asked for Stone Edge: Star tried to dodge but couldn't; Leah decided to try getting her to hit the attack back next time.

"Now! Quick Attack then Steel Wing while you're close!" Leah called.

"Grab it with bind!" Brock barked.

"Retreat!" Leah exclaimed, panicked. Star managed to retreat from the attack and not get caught in bind.

"Rock throw!" Brock asked.

"Dodge! Use double team again!" Leah cried.

"We're not falling for that again! Use Stone edge at all the clones!" Brock ordered.

"Hit them back with steel wing!" Leah called.

"Star!" Star and her clones cried, preparing to use Steel Wing. All the sharp stones thrown her way were sent back at Onix, who didn't dodge due to surprise about the attack getting hit back. Evidently, it had not seen this before.

"Augh! Use Curse then Rock Tomb!" Brock called.

"Quick attack! Quickly!" Leah called.

"Stop it with Rock Tomb!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge!" Leah cried a little too late. After Onix had finished using Curse, it released another rock tomb.

"Dodge!" Leah cried again. Star managed to dodge it this time. "Fly in! Don't let how you fly in be predictable! And use double team!" Leah cried.

"Keep calm, and don't let your guard down! If you think you spot the real one, use Rock Throw!" Brock told Onix, and Onix nodded its head in understanding.

Onix released Rock throw, however, it was unable to predict where Star was going to fly to which meant they didn't hit. It did manage to graze Star, though. "Use Steel wing!" Leah ordered, flinching as Star did so.

"Endure the hit, then use bind!" Brock called.

"Oh no!" Leah cried, not even trying to get Star to dodge it. She then tried to think of a counter attack and a way to get Star out of bind. Leah couldn't see a way, and was going into panic mode, again.

"Leah! Calm down! Think!" Ash called. He briefly wondered how long he would have to remind her about that.

"Oh right," Leah said, giving herself a small whack.

"Use Steel Wing and push your wings out!" Leah called.

"Don't let it, Onix!" Brock ordered.

Star covered her wings in a steel coating and tried to push them out. Onix meanwhile, tightened its grip and was trying with everything to outlast Star; a battle of wills as they called it. Five minutes passed, and both trainers started encouraging their Pokémon to not give up.

Finally, when both looked like they were about ready to give up, Star broke free. "Now! Steel wing!" Leah called, taking the opportunity of Onix being a bit out of it.

Star nodded, and flew in and hit Onix. "Now! Wing Attack!"  
"Quick! Grab it with bind!" Brock asked, panicked.

"Dodge! Double Team then surround Onix getting closer!" Leah shouted. This was it: they were so close.

"Get it together! Find the real one by using Rock throw!" Brock ordered.

"Dodge all the attacks!" Leah called, giving a small nod to Star. Neither wanted to fail this time.

Star flew around all the rocks and wracked Onix with both wings. "Gr!" Onix groaned, falling backwards.

"Onix is unable to battle!" Brock said with a small nod. He pulled out one of his pokéballs and returned his Onix.  
Leah just stood there, unable to believe what happened. It took several minutes for it to sink in, and then she felt excitement and happiness.

"We won… We won! Star! You are amazing! Thank you!" Leah exclaimed, getting excited and jumping around like a loon. Star flew over and down to Leah, who gave her a hug. "You were so amazing!" Leah told her starter.

"Star, Starly!" Star cried happily. Misty and Ash rushed down the stairs to congratulate Leah and her team.

"Send Snivy out? Good idea," Leah said releasing Snivy. "We won, Snivy! Thank you so much!"  
"Sni," Snivy nodded. He then gave Leah a look that said to even an idiot, 'don't you dare hug me.'

"Is a high-five okay?" Leah asked uncertainly. Snivy nodded, and she gave him a high-five.

"Leah! Well done! You won your first gym badge!" Ash said excitedly.

"Ri! Riolu!" Riolu nodded.

"Fro, froakie!" Froakie said, congratulating them also.

"That was a good battle," Misty nodded.

"Thanks. I couldn't have done it without your help. So, thank you," Leah said shyly. Brock had come over by this point.

"Good job, Leah. This is the Bolder badge: it is proof of your victory here," Brock said, handing Leah a badge exactly the same as the one Ash had been given.

"Thank you. Yay! We got the bolder badge!" Leah said, taking it.

"Starly!" Star chirped excitedly.

"Snivy," Snivy said smugly.

"Here's a TM. It's for Stone Edge: Hold it over the Pokéball of one of your Pokémon, and if you can see through it the Pokémon can learn it," Brock explained.

"Thank you," Leah said gratefully.

As she took her backpack off and unzipped it, Ash helpfully said, "There's a TM case in there, as it's a typical backpack for beginner trainers and they all have them: it's like a pencil case if you're not sure what it looks like."  
After a couple of minutes, Leah pulled out the TM case. She unzipped that, and asked, after looking at it confusedly for a minute or so, "How do we put it in?"  
"Just slide it in," Misty replied.

"Thanks, and sorry," Leah said, hastily doing that.

"Are you off to the next town now? I'm guessing you'll challenge the Cerulean Gym next," Brock asked the group.

"Yes, we are," Ash nodded, as Leah closed her TM Case and put it back in her bag.

"You learn so much from journeys. I wish I could go on one: I could learn a lot and be able to fulfil my dream of becoming a Pokémon Breeder," Brock said longingly.

"That's too bad. Is there no one who could take your place?" Leah asked.

"No, there isn't," Brock shook his head.

"Well, if you ever get the chance to leave, feel free to contact us and you can join," Ash said cheerfully.

"Thanks. Good luck on your journey," Brock nodded.

"Thanks! Bye!" Ash, Leah and Misty said. Their Pokémon said goodbye to Brock, too. After that, they left the gym and headed to the Pokémon Centre.

Upon arriving, Leah handed her Pokémon to Nurse Joy while Ash went outside to train with Froakie. They had decided they would leave after lunch, but it was not even lunchtime yet: an hour and a half before.

He started off with continuing to approve Froakie's agility. Ash did that by getting him to do laps, and dodge when Misty got Staryu to throw attacks at him: she was helping them out. They had a power battle against Staryu, and worked on Froakie's defence with Riolu. By the end, he was on level ten, which meant Froakie now had Lick added to his move pool.  
As Ash finished up, Leah was called off to collect her Pokémon. They met her inside, where they then went off to have lunch. Misty gave Goldeen to Nurse Joy, as it was easier for Joy to feed the goldfish pokémon.

As they ate, Misty asked, "Can either of you think of anything we need to buy before we go?"

"No," Leah shook her head.

"I can't," Ash replied.

"Ri!" Riolu said, saying they didn't need anything. Snivy glared at him for speaking.

"Snivy!" Leah exclaimed, seeing that.

After lunch, they collected Goldeen then left the Pokémon Centre. As they walked through town, Misty said, "We have to cross Mt Moon to reach my hometown, and it's basically a week's travel, slightly less with most of that over Mt Moon. There is a small hamlet on this side, though. Once you get to the other side, though, it's a couple of hours to the town."  
"Sounds like a nice journey," Leah commented.

"Are there lots of different Pokémon up there?" Ash asked.

"A few: it's a place trainers like to go, and a lot like to train there," Misty replied.

As they the walked to the edge of town, the buildings getting fewer and fewer. Leah personally was happy about this, as she didn't like the design of Pewter City. Ash and Misty didn't have a problem with it, though: they quite liked it in fact.

As they started along a riverside path, they heard a shout from behind them. "Wait up!" a voice called.

All three humans, Star and Riolu jumped in the air, then turned around to see Brock running towards them. They stopped, and when Brock reached them, he was bent over. Panting. He had a rather large backpack that must have been extremely heavy.

"What happened?" Ash asked.

"Would you believe it? My father turned up. Apparently, he left to become a better trainer, realised he couldn't do it and was too embarrassed to return, so he's been selling rocks outside the city for the last four and a half years," Brock grumbled.

"But that means you can come with us now?" Leah guessed.  
"Yes, it does," Brock nodded.

"Well then, welcome to the group!" Ash said cheerfully.

"Yes, welcome," Misty nodded.

"Thanks," Brock said, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Well then, what are we waiting for?! I want to get to Mt Moon!" Ash exclaimed. Then he ran ahead with Riolu right by his side.

"Ash! Wait up!" Leah cried. Then she sighed and shrugged. She ran after him with the other two following. Star decided it would be more comfortable to fly above them until they stopped running.

Meanwhile, from the shadows, two shadowy figures (in different spots) watched them. One was speaking into a communication device.

"The kid is out of Pewter City, heading your way, Watch out," they said. The other figure jumped down from their perch to follow Ash and co.

* * *

**Pokemon list:**

**Ash:  
Riolu, Pidgeotto, Froakie**

**Leah:  
Star (Starly), Snivy**

**Leaf:  
Blossom (Bulbasaur), Polly (Poliwag)**

**Gary:  
Squirtle, Pidgey**

**Misty:  
Staryu, Starmie, Goldeen**

**Brock:  
Onix, Geodude, Binacle**

**Pairings at the moment:**

**Ash X Cynthia **

**Leah X Gary?**

**Dawn X Barry **

**Misty x Rudi **

**Anabel X Brandon or Looker?**

**Lillie X Ritchie?**

**Brock X Lucy or Susie (one or the other)**

**Lucas X Leaf?**

**Please note, if it has anything other then a question mark it is almost certainly going to happen ;) There are a few ideas there. Also, Serena will appear in this story!**

**I'm playing the Ruby remakes and I'm annoyed that I have to wait until everything is over to get a Reaper cloth :(**

**Please note: Thanks to everyone who has voted on the poll so far. I have added some more ideas, and plan to keep it open until after Cerulean. If you guys want I can revive it later on, or I might if I don't like the result *Lol!* however, the results will be kept quiet, and at that time, I will probably start to develop the story that way. When that happens, it will be Leah's turn for a family poll! Some unvoted suggestions will probably be reused. So guys, better get voting!**


	7. Mt Moon

**Chapter 7: Mt Moon **

**Yay, we're finally at Mt Moon, it feels like it has taken forever to get here. But, I've made it. I am just going to remind you all, (or tell you if you hadn't thought of it,) this is going to be a long story, so we are going to be in this for a long time. Suggestions are welcome and constructive criticism.**

**BTW, I might be asking the wrong crowd, but does anyone know of an SW, story with Rey in it, that shows her characterisation well? I am writing a story with her in it: do note, due to events I will not tell because you might read it, is because the reason is a spoiler, her personality will be a bit different. I want the basics though.**

**I don't really mind what is in the story, as long as it has good characterisation. I'd rather no Reylo as I hate that pairing more than I hate any other pairing, but I am not going to be too picky. If I don't get any suggestions, I am just going to go with what I felt and thought watching the movie, which might not be completely correct. **

**Onward with Rainbow Guardians.**

* * *

Route 4 was a pretty straight forward route as far as routes went: yet quite different to all the routes they'd been on so far. The path slowly inclined up as they went along a winding trail, which looked like a canyon. There were tall towers of rocky cliffs on both sides, with the odd patch of tall grass popping up here and there.

It did take two days to reach the foot of Mt Moon, though, which meant it was quite a long route, despite the fact it looked and felt quite plain and short. When they stopped for the night, all the trainers, but particularly Leah and Ash, did some training.

Crossing the path (quite often too) were Nidoran female and male, with the odd ekans. There were some pokémon from other regions, such as Linoone and Bidoof. Hiding in the grass, rather than crossing the path or near the edge, they spotted a whismur, two sandshrew, manky and a pysduck. In the water, there were a few pokémon, like magikarp and goldeen, and even the rare buizel. They all disappeared too quickly to be caught, though.

"There are a lot of Pokémon living here, aren't there?" Ash commented.

"There are. But just look out how lush it is! There might not be much feed around here, but I bet that there is a lot of nutrition that makes it a great breeding ground," Brock said, gesturing to the lush and green grass and the trees that they could see. It was a small number.

"You know a lot," Leah said, for the fourth time that day. She realised she was beginning to sound like a broken record.

"It's part of being a Pokémon breeder," Misty pointed out.

Ash and Brock were getting on like a house on fire, and Misty seemed to have taken to the older gym leader pretty well too, but Leah was a little shy around Brock. Unlike Ash and Misty, she didn't seem to really like him, or trust him completely: Ash wasn't sure which.

When they stopped for lunch, Leah was very quick to volunteer to get firewood. She was keen to get the fire lit as she was quite cold: she had fallen into a pond. When she and Ash collected the wood, they started talking about Brock's special recipe for Pokémon food.

"So you put certain ingredients which are better for certain types? Usually berries?" Misty asked.

"Exactly," Brock nodded.

"There is so much to learn!" Leah said, looking and sounding alarmed.

"There is! But it's easy to learn!" Ash said cheerfully. That didn't help Leah much: what was easy for him had a good chance of not being easy for her.

"I don't think anyone has learnt everything there is to know. Part of pokémon training, and being with pokémon full stop is the new things learnt every day," Brock added in.

"Maybe," Leah said begrudgingly. She hoped that was the case.

Half an hour later, with the exception of Star and Riolu, all the Pokémon had been returned to their balls, they left their temporary campsite and hit the road again. On the road the trainers were very quiet, and things were a little awkward as a result.

Ash and Leah battled several trainers, and Star was as close as ever to evolve. Leah was excited, for that reason, and she had even won a few battles! Two reasons to be excited. Ash had won a few, but he'd also lost one as well.

In the evening, they were basically at the foot of Mt Moon, so they kept going to reach a Pokemon Centre supposedly at the foot, and now they were ten or so minutes from said pokémon centre. They encountered a trainer then! First one for a while, so it was quite exciting, and it made things a little more interesting. Several of them were bored stiff, with walking with nothing else happening or to do. Namely Ash was bored, and he had been complaining.  
"My names' Greden Starke, what's yours?" A youngster said, running towards them.

"I'm Ash Ketchum!" Ash said, hoping for another battle.

"Cool! A two on two okay? Hey, blondie!" Greden called to Leah.

"Sure!" Ash replied.

"Who, me?" Leah asked surprised, glancing around.

"No, the ghastly behind you! Yes you! You referee!" Greden ordered, not very kindly.

"But I don't know how to!" Leah cried.

"it's easy. All you do is make make sure they follow it being a two on two, and that's about it," Brock supplied helpfully. He and Misty thought Greden was a bit rude, and not very sensitive about people. Otherwise, he would have noticed Leah's nervousness about his tone and softened.  
"But what about announcing when a Pokémon faints?!" Leah said, ignoring Brock slightly.

"That's easy! Wait until they don't move for a minute, and try to see if they have look fainted in their eyes," Misty helpfully supplied.

"Okay," Leah nodded. Greden and Ash walked a fair way away from each other, with Leah, Brock and Misty in the middle of the space between them.

"This is a two on two, and the battle will be over when both Pokémon on either side are unable to continue! Begin!" Leah called, copying someone, but she couldn't remember who.

"Froakie! Go!" Ash called, releasing Froakie. Froakie had done a bit of training during the day, and he was almost up to mastering Water Pulse. He was starting to show signs of evolution, which excited Ash. Those were the reasons for choosing his frog partner.

"Bulbasaur, your up!" Greden said, releasing the seed Pokémon. If Brock had to admit it, it was quite a fine example of a Bulbasaur. The Bulbasaur looked like it would soon evolve. Further from evolution then Froakie or maybe the same, but it was close.

"Start!" Leah cried.

"Use Vine Whip!" Greden called.

"Dodge, use Lick!" Ash ordered.

"Dodge! Growl!" Greden shouted.

"Keep using Lick!" Ash barked.

Froakie pursued Bulbasaur and as it used to growl, Froakie licked the creature. "Leech Seed!" Greden called.

"Spin using bubble! Then quick attack!" Ash said, trying to deflect the leech seed. It worked as he had hoped, and caused damage.

"He's getting quite good, isn't he?" Misty commented as Bulbasaur dodged a growl from Froakie, then used poison powder. Brock just nodded.

A little later, Bulbasaur fainted. After carefully examining Bulbasaur, Leah said, "Bulbasaur is unable to battle! Froakie wins!"

"Good job," Greden said, returning his Pokémon. He sounded defeated. But as Brock reflected, being put down a peg or two wouldn't do any harm.

"Yay! Go Froakie!" Ash cried.

"_Well done, Froakie," _Riolu nodded.

"Now, Nidoran; go!" Greden said, releasing the male Nidoran.

"Ready to continue?" Ash asked Froakie, and Froakie nodded.

"Use Peck!" Greden called.

"Dodge with pound!" Ash cried.

"Dodge, Focus energy!" Greden said.

"Quick! Bubble while its mind is on something else!" Ash cried.

"Dodge!" Greden called too late. Bubble hit its mark.

"Double Kick!" Greden then called.

"Dodge and use pound!" Ash ordered.

"Keep using double kick and dodge the pound attack!" Greden called, which meant both Pokémon went into what was like a boxing match.

It was certainly a great way to tire them out and somehow, they were both extremely agile (which was surprising for Nidoran) and avoided all attacks, except for the odd kick or pound.

"Finish it with bubble!" Ash cried.

"Jump, then use poison sting!" Greden shouted.

Nidoran dodged and then shot poison sting from the air, which hit Froakie because he wasn't expecting it. "Spin and use bubble! Then Lick the bubbles to give them more strength!" Ash called.

"He's trying out his new techniques," Leah remarked to Brock and Misty, and they nodded to agree.

After trying to hit Nidoran with bubble then using a bubble and lick combination, Nidoran fainted. "Nidoran is unable to battle! Ash wins!" Leah cried.

"Tanks, buddy," Greden said, returning his Pokémon while Froakie ran over to Ash, who then stroked and praised it.

"Tanks for the battle! It was a good one," Greden said, walking over to Ash after Ash had returned Froakie.

"Same! I enjoyed it," Ash said smiling.

"Take this, and good luck. I hope we get to battle again! Maybe at the Indigo Plateau?" Greden said, handing Ash his prize money. Then, Greden walked off. Considering out of the three battles Ash had had before now, he had only lost the one before this one, (which he still won,) he was doing pretty well in the way of cash.

As the Pokémon Centre came in sight, they met another trainer: a lass with blonde hair, a dark shirt and a pink pleated skirt. "Before I get to Pewter City, I'd like at least one more battle. Will any of you battle me?" she asked them.

"I will," Leah nodded, after glancing at the others and seeing none of them were going to volunteer. Maybe battling more would make her more confident, and her next gym battle would be easier?

"Great! I'm Erin Breaker," the lass nodded.

The two trainers moved a fair distance away from each other, when Ash said, "Let me referee!"

"Thanks, Ash. I'm Leah by the way, Erin," Leah nodded.

"Nice! Two on two okay?" Erin called.

"Yep," Leah nodded.

"Right this will be a two on two! Begin!" Ash called.

Erin sent out an Eevee, who was her starter, apparently, while Leah sent Snivy out. Both Pokémon were pretty equal, so that battle ended in a draw. Next was Erin's Vulpix against Star.

Star started off with a wing attack, and Vulpix tried an ember. It was not a very strong Pokémon yet, so Vulpix didn't last long. However, after Ash announced Leah as the winner, Star evolved! Leah was very excited.

When Star stopped glowing, gone was the little starling who was a little on the stubby side, and what was in her place was a much bigger, taller and regal bird, but she still looked much like her starting form. Now at a bit over two and a half feet, Star's body had darkened, and her neck had gotten more pronounced, along with other markings and colours changing.

"Wow! You evolved! Well done! I'm so happy!" Leah cried as she and Ash pulled their Pokédexes out.

'_Staravia, the starling Pokémon. Female. They maintain huge flocks, although fierce scuffles break out between various flocks. Knows tackle, growl, quick attack, wing attack, steel wing and double team.'_

"Congrats, Leah," Erin said, handing Leah her winnings.  
"Thank you: good luck in your future battles. Hope we battle again," Leah said, taking the money gratefully. She liked Erin, and hoped they met again: and unlike Greden, Erin was nowhere near as rude or arrogant. After saying goodbye, Erin continued on to Pewter City.

"Star," Star cried. Leah then went over, and the girl and pokémon had a hug.

"You look great, Star! Well done!" Brock and Misty both congratulated the bird.

When they had gotten over the excitement of Star evolving, and Leah had thanked Snivy, Ash said, making everyone notice how dark it was, "We better hurry on, it's almost completely and utterly dark!"  
Everyone nodded, and Leah returned Snivy while Star flew on her shoulder. God! Star had gotten a lot heavier. Leah thought she might need to join Ash in his joint training with Riolu: well, certainly the weightlifting.

They arrived at the Pokémon centre no more than five minutes later. After booking in and handing their Pokémon over, they all went to the cafeteria for dinner. By the time they had finished and picked their Pokémon up, it was time for bed, which was welcome considering they had done a whole lot of working during the day.

After breakfast, they headed off again and entered Mt Moon itself. They had not gone far into the cave when they were attacked by a flock of woobats, then soon after, they were met and were challenged by three trainers, and attacked by the flock of Zubat. Leah, Ash and Misty all battled the trainers while Brock fought the zubat with binacle.

"Bincle! Water Gun!" he said. After binacle had hit a few bats with a water gun, Brock asked for Stone Edge to get rid of the remaining ones. They all flew off except for one: Brock decided to catch that one since it was still hanging around.

"Augh! That was a nightmare!" Leah moaned as they walked on. Though on the bright side, she had been winning a few battles so she was getting a nice amount of cash, and was feeling more comfortable about money.

"It would have been nice if everything did not have to happen at once," Misty nodded.

For about the next twenty minutes, they found nothing but wild zubats and Geodudes, with the odd Clefairy. No one managed to catch a Clefairy. Most of the pokémon were looking or acting panicked, which was odd.

"What's up with this place!" Misty moaned rather loudly. They had stopped for a break, and to heal their Pokémon. The trainers slumped down on some large flattish rocks.

"If I'd known we'd encounter this many wild Pokémon in such large groups, I'd have brought more stuff back at the foot of the mountain," Brock commented. He had no idea travelling was so tiring.  
As Ash spoke, he noticed Leah looked like she was about to fall asleep, "I take it it was not like this last time you came through, Misty?"

"No, it wasn't anything like this," Misty nodded. It had been pleasant then: quiet, with a few trainers and the odd Pokemon. She hadn't encountered any flocks of zubat then, either.

"Ri!" Riolu cried to Leah, Snivy and Star. He had said, "_Lookout! Something is about to attack Leah!"_

"Huh? Leah, look out!" Ash cried.

Star and Snivy were way ahead though: they started moving as soon as Riolu finished speaking. They jumped into action as Leah shook herself awake, and released a vine whip and steel wing at something behind Leah.

"Yahh!" Leah jumped up and spun around as everyone else got up.  
"It's a Clefairy!" Brock cried, shocked, seeing the pink fairy pokémon sprawled on the ground after being hit by the two attacks.

"What?!" Leah said, also stunned.

"I don't understand! They all seemed so sweet and shy: why would one try and attack Leah?" Misty wondered. They were all very shocked. Misty was thinking about her past experiences, too: all clefairy seemed like nice pokémon, and none of the trainers had mentioned anything like this.

"_Well, it defiantly was going to! I could feel it!" _Riolu reported to Ash.

"Thanks, pal. Riolu says it defiantly was going to attack Leah," Ash reported.

"Thanks, Riolu. What now?" Leah asked, glancing at the poor Clefairy who had fainted. She thought it was poor: considering all the other ones they had come across, it attacking her and meaning harm seemed so unlikely!

"We should probably heal it. It would be cruel to leave it like this," Brock said, walking over and picking the Fairy-type up.

As Brock healed it, everyone else helped out in some way. Misty commented, shivering, "I feel like we're being watched."  
"Same!" Ash nodded, and Riolu agreed with them both.

"Come to mention it, I do feel like something is trying to bore holes into me," Brock said after thinking for a minute. He glanced around, along with the others who were looking around.

"This whole cave is creepy! I can't wait to get out of here," Leah said, shivering as Misty had done.

Riolu meanwhile, scanned the area with his aura. He kept looking until he found something! "_Ash! Something behind that rock over there!" _Riolu said, pointing to a rock a fair distance away. Then he ran over, and Ash followed.

"Right with you, pal! Let's find out what it is while the others finish with clefairy," Ash said, following his partner.

As they reached the rock the mystery pokémon was behind and started slowly walking behind it, there was a bright flash, momentarily blinding Ash, then it faded and there was nothing there. Ash had defiantly seen something, just for a so short period of time, he couldn't make anything out. It looked like it was yellow or white.

"What was it?" Leah asked as Ash and Riolu walked back.

"Something was defiantly watching us, but it ran off before we could see it. How's Clefairy?" Ash asked as he returned.

"Good: Clefairy is about to wake up," Brock reported.

No more than a couple of seconds after Brock had said that Clefairy sat up, and looked around. She seemed very confused. "Clef?" Clefairy said. Upon seeing the four trainers, she started to look nervous and very confused.

Riolu stepped forward and had a small chat with the fairy type, then he reported it all to Ash. "Okay, Riolu says Clefairy has no idea how she got here, and no memory of trying to attack Leah. The last thing she remembers is being attacked by some people in black with red Rs on their shirts, and the move hypnosis being used: That explains why she seems very nervous now, and maybe why all the other ones ran away from us," Ash said.

"Team Rocket!" the others all cried: who else wore black with red Rs on their shirts?  
"Of course! They must be doing something here which is upsetting all the Pokémon!" Misty cried.

"But what do we do?" Leah asked.

"Clef!" Clefairy said, looking ashamed.

"Clefairy is sorry, Leah. Clefairy, do you think you could take us to Team Rocket?" Ash asked. The Clefairy nodded, though begrudgingly.

"It's okay, Clefairy: I don't think you really meant to attack me. You had no idea about what you were doing, after all," Leah said. Then Clefairy jumped up at Leah, giving her a hug.

"Is this a good idea? Shouldn't we avoid them? There are other ways through this mountain." Brock asked, concerned for all their safety. He knew Team Rocket was dangerous, and before he left he had been told to look out for them.

"They killed my aunt! I cannot let them get away with it! If I find them, I will always try and foil whatever their doing; whatever their plans are!" Ash cried passionately as they packed up.

After returning all Pokémon except for Star and Riolu, Leah was feeling like a Pokémon rack. Star on one shoulder, and Clefairy on the other. "How did I get into this again?" Leah muttered as they moved onward. Everyone else just laughed, which did not help matters.

A while later, Clefairy spoke, and Riolu translated the message to Ash. "We're nearly there, apparently. Just up that ladder to the room above and we're there," Ash said. All the others nodded, though Leah was very nervous about the whole thing: after looking around, Ash was the only one who didn't look nervous.

Just as the reached the ladder, Clefairy jumped down. Something else happened though. A yellow Pokémon with human-like features appeared and stopped them all with psychic. The trainers could only stare in shock as they were teleported away.

################################

Where the mysterious pokémon teleported them to, looked a lot like the rest of the mountain though it looked like they were higher up near looked like a ledge, which they had not seen any of before now. But they hadn't exactly been looking at the roof, either.

"Al, Alakazam," the Pokémon cried. Ash pulled out his Pokédex to discover it was the psychic type, Alakazam. Ash vaguely noticed Clefairy was hiding behind Leah, looking a bit weary of the psychic-type.

"What's the big idea with teleporting us!" Misty growled at the psychic-type.

a feminine voice spoke. "You were about to walk into danger, and ruin my plan for getting Team Rocket out of here and hopefully finally capture one of their executives."

The person had short, lilac hair with matching eyes, and wore clothes that were a much lighter purple, almost white. Her clothes had white and yellow parts. She looked like she was eighteen, maybe twenty-one, though she seemed mature.

"Are you a girl?" Ash asked very innocently. The two older Pokémon trainers with him facepalmed and resisted the urge to groan. Leah just stared at Ash: what a rude comment!

"Err, yes I am," the lady said, a little perplexed. It seemed, unsurprisingly, she had never been asked that and was trying to work out how to take it. Then she gave a small laugh. "My name's Anabel Lilac," She said with a smile.  
"Hello, I'm Ash Ketchum," Ash nodded.

"My name's Leah Lin," Leah greeted with a smile.

"My name's Brock Bolderson," Brock said.

"I'm Misty. Now, what's the big idea for kidnapping us?!" Misty cried.

"Well, as you might know, Team Rocket is in this very mountain, and have been for the past few days. There are a lot of them here, including an Admin/executive, whatever they call themselves: his name's Petrol. I arrived here yesterday, and have been observing them, working how I am going to capture them or drive them out. I had just formed a plan when you came along," Anabel explained.

"Oh. Can we help?" Ash asked.

"No, it wouldn't be safe," Anabel shook her head.

"What are they even doing here?" Leah asked.

"Fossils. Mt Moon as always been famous for its large collection, but recently the amount being found has been doubled," Anabel replied.

"Please, Anabel, let me help at least! I need to help," Ash begged.

"If you're going to, we are too," Misty said, putting her hand on her hip.  
"Anyway, Anabel, if we really want to help with Team Rocket, we can just come back," Leah pointed out.  
"I suppose. Just, do exactly as I say, okay?" Anabel said sternly. She had resigned herself to the fact these were young trainers that were going to help, no matter what, and there was nothing she could do about it, except let them help from the start and make a plan around it.

She prayed to Arceus that it would be okay. She was feeling a bit better when the Staravia and Riolu told her she could trust their trainers' words.

"Yes, Anabel!" all four nodded. She believed their word, for some reason.

"So, what's the plan?" Brock asked.

"Well, we will need to take out the grunts who are supposed to be keeping people away, then deal with the rest of them. I have two Alakazams and an Espeon who can do that. Then we go in and I will tackle the admin, while you guys can attack the grunts left in the middle section."

"Clef, Clef," Clefairy said.

"You want to do something, Clefairy?" Leah guessed, looking behind her.

"Clefairy, would you be happy to be to be a deception?" Anabel asked, and Clefairy nodded. Then she explained to the Pokémon what it had to do. Misty wondered if Anabel was telepathic or psychic. They were both connected abilities, and yet very different.

After going over the plans and what they had to do, Anabel told them to have a sleep before they headed off. When they awoke sometime later, she led them off after releasing the other Alakazam and her Espeon and giving them orders. That gave everyone time to wake up.

"Where we going?" Leah asked.

"The entrance of where the area they took over: the one you were about to go up when Alakazam teleported you here. Around the other side, are the police waiting to catch Team Rocket when they make a run for it, which they should. They are set up so Team Rocket can't slip through," Anabel explained.

################################

When they came back to the ladder, Anabel said, "After me."  
Anabel went up, then Misty, then Leah, then Ash and finally Brock. They came up in a small alcove in a large room. In front of them were two grunts who had been knocked out rather convincingly.

"Now, attack those ones in the middle, nearby that purple-haired guy: that's Petrol. Espeon and Alakazam will take care of the others," Anabel whispered, and the others nodded to give understanding.

They marched in, and straight into the middle, not beating about the bush. "Get out of here now, Team Rocket!" Anabel said loudly, as they approached Petrol.

"Well, well, if it isn't the salon maiden: decided to leave you battle tower, did you?" Petrol said lazily.

Ash felt a light-bulb go off in his head. Anabel was a Frontier Brain! Of course! That's why she's here! If he's brain served him well, she was part of the police or a detective of the league (he wasn't sure which,) as well. The Battle Frontier was only new, but all the trainers were strong trainers who had been highly advertised all over TV.

"Well, at least I have an honest job! And, at least I don't harm Pokemon," Anabel shot back.  
"We won't leave," Petrol said, stating fact.

"What about if we defeat everyone?" Anabel asked, eyebrows raised.

"I suppose we would have to retreat, for now. But, that's not likely to happen," Petrol said relaxed. Eight grunts surrounded them, including Jessie and James, and all the grunts released their Pokémon.

"You tackle that side!" Ash said to Misty and Brock. They both nodded.

"let's work together, Leah," Ash said, turning to the grunts who had released a Raticate and Ekans.

"Star, Riolu, go!" both children said, as Anabel released a Metagross, Misty released Starmie, and Brock released Onix.

"Star! Use Steel Wing on Ekans!" Leah cried.

"Riolu, Force Palm on Raticate! Full power! Don't let that scum get away with anything!" Ash cried, sounding very angry. Leah flinched at the tone: she wasn't sure, but she was pretty sure it was a way of speech that would be frowned upon by his mother.

"Dodge, Ekans!" the female grunt said.

"Use Super Fang to counter!" the other one said.

"Come back at it!" Leah called.

Riolu and Raticate held the attack for a while, but Riolu eventually pushed Raticate back and hit. Star came around and hit Ekans. With so much more power for her evolution, and the opponent, being pretty weak, fainted in one hit. Star learnt Endeavor much to Leah's shock; Ash felt briefly amused by Leah's reaction.

"Now! Use Force Palm again!" Ash cried, his aura starting to flare up.

"Ash! Calm down!" Leah cried as Raticate avoided the attack Riolu sent its way. Then Raticate used quick attack, and Riolu avoided it then used feint and quick attack.

The Raticate fainted after the next attack; the next two grunts had a Herdier and a Zubat. Star used wing attack on Zubat, while Herdier used bite on Star. "Riolu! Stop the Herdier with Quick Attack! Then use Force Palm!" Ash cried.

"Dodge, Zubat! Then poison sting on the Riolu!" the grunt cried.

"Riolu! Use revenge instead of Force Palm!" Ash cried. He had calmed down a little bit, thankfully.

"Herdier! Tackle!" grunt said.

"Steel Wing, Star!" Leah cried.

Herdier tried to dodge Star, but Star kept pursuing it. Riolu meanwhile, used Revenge on Zubat. Then Herdier tried growl followed by tackle. Star used quick attack on Zubat, while Riolu used Quick Attack on Herdier. Then he followed up with Force Palm.

Star and Zubat did a dance in the air. Zubat attacked Star, and then Zubat managed dodged Star's steel wing after Star had dodged the attack Zubat had just used. Riolu, meanwhile, was close to making Herdier faint. However, Herdier was making a run for it, around the area. Riolu was using a quick attack to give it the chase.

Ash realised that the first two grunts had just been to suss Leah and Ash out, and the other two were much stronger. Ash hoped Leah realised this, as that would give them the edge.

On the other side, Misty and Brock were watching Ash and Leah, having defeated two grunts. The last two had been Jessie and James. They begged not to be battled, so Misty and Brock took pity on them and let them get off free. The two and Meowth promptly ran way.

Ten minutes later, Star and Riolu were getting tired with no result as of yet. The trainers were at a loss for what to do, as Star used another Steel Wing which was dodged by her opponent, and Riolu used force palm again.

"What should we do?" Leah asked Ash.

"Simple! We cheat! Use Bubble on Zubat, Froakie!" Ash said, pausing to think, then releasing another Pokémon.

"Right. Snivy, use vine whip on Herdier!" Leah called, releasing Snivy.

Both Pokémon emerged and released the attacks. They were also accompanied by a charming cry. Ash realised it was the fairy move Disarming Voice. Both enemy pokémon fainted. They both looked around and saw Clefairy: she must have used a Disarming voice attack!  
"Clefairy! Froakie! Snivy! You beauties!" Leah cried as the grunts returned their pokémon. "Thank you, Star, Riolu! You both were wonderful, too."  
"Yeah!" Ash agreed.

"_Thank you, master. All the others say thank you, too, by the way," _Riolu said.

"Augh! They defeated us!" Petrol exclaimed, alerting Leah and Ash to the fact Anabel had defeated the admin. Ash wouldn't expect any less from a frontier brain, and a winner of the Hoenn League, he now recalled.

"Yes! Now, give it up!" Anabel cried.

"Run! Guys! Leave everything!" Petrol cried, making a run for it. The grunts followed. When it came to the crunch, they sure were cowards.

As Ash went to go after them, Anabel stopped him. "Leave them: they will fall into a trap we set," Anabel said smoothly. Ash just nodded.

Anabel then pulled out some device and spoke into it. She said, "Get ready, they should be heading your way, assuming our knowledge of the layout of the mountain is correct."  
Ten minutes later, a small group of police and scientists arrived, which meant Anabel, Ash, Leah, Brock and Misty could leave. They chatted as they walked to the exit of the mountain on, (the Cerulean City side,) with Anabel explaining what was going on, and what would happen to the team rocket members they captured, and the fossils.

As they reached the exit, Anabel received a call on her phone. "What?! How?!" She exclaimed after answering. The police blockade would have moved by now.

"Okay, okay: I understand," Anabel then said. She hung up, looking disappointed, upset along with a mixture of other emotions.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked.

"Petrol, he got away. Just as they were putting them all into the trucks, he got loose and made a dash for it. Some other rockets were waiting to pick him up," Anabel explained.

"GAHH! No!" Ash cried.

"Ash, calm down," Leah said tiredly, feeling a rise in Ash's aura coming on, as did Misty, Brock and Anabel. Anabel wondered if Ash had found another aura user to teach him how to control it: from his outbursts, she would guess not. Psychics and aura users could feel outbursts from each other.

She was thankful she was only able to read feelings of pokémon and people, otherwise, she would have had to have found someone to teach her. Look at Sabrina: until a psychic user came out and helped her, she was a right old mess.

"Yes, exactly, Leah. We will find him: Team Rocket can't hide and escape capture forever. Now, you guys were a great help, I'm sorry I underestimated your ability to help me out. Is there anything I can get you or do for you in return?" Anabel asked.

"Clef?" Clefairy cried, alerting them all to the fact she was still here.

"Clefairy?!" they call cried.

"Why don't you want to go back to your friends?" Leah asked, bending down.

"Clef, Clefairy!" Clefairy said, pointing towards Star and Snivy's balls.

"Leah, Clefairy wants to go with you," Anabel stated.

"What? Really? Is that what you want?" Leah asked Clefairy, and Clefairy nodded.

"Star!" Star cried. She was happy that Clefairy was going to be staying.

"Okay," Leah said, pulling a Pokéball out. "Go!" She threw it at Clefairy, and Clefairy went in. After rocking twice, it donged.

"Yay! I caught a Clefairy!" Leah cried, picking it up. Star cried with her.

After congratulating her, Anabel said, "Now, an answer to what I can do as thanks. And I'm sorry I didn't think you'd be any help. And no, saying no is not fine! Because I feel I should do something."  
"it's fine, really, Anabel. How about taking us straight to Cerulean City, if you insist?" Brock suggested.

"Sounds fair," Anabel nodded, reaching for Alakazam's pokéball.

"And can you answer some questions on Pokémon training and battling please?" Ash asked.

"Great idea!" Leah nodded.

"Alright. Alakazam, go!" Anabel said, releasing an Alakazam. She wouldn't mind spending more time around these trainers, they were good people and promising Pokémon trainers. If she had to admit it she was considering them friends, even though she'd only known them for four hours at the most.

"Can you teleport us to Cerulean City, please?" Anabel asked.

"Ala," Alakazam nodded.

"Get ready," Anabel said. A few seconds later, they all were teleported off.

* * *

**Pokemon List:**

**Ash: Riolu, Froakie, Pidgeotto**

**Leah: Star (Staravia,) Snivy, Clefairy**

**Brock: Binacle, Onix, Geodude, Zubat**

**Misty: Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Leaf: Blossom (Bulbasaur), Polly (Poliwag.)**

**Gary: Squirtle, Pidgey**

**Anabel: Alakazam (times 2), Espeon, Metagross.**

**I am including Anabel on the list as she is going to be around for a few chapters. And yeah, I wasn't planning on having Leah capture Clefairy, but it seemed to fit so I went for it.**

**I am changing the poll from Ash's father to Leah's parents' next week, and I will remain with that for a while. So you have a week to vote, and if I still have equal choices I will either put it back up later, or make up my own mind with what I think will work best. You guys can decide though.**

**And each region is going to be separate stories. I'm making Orange Islands separate as I did a cool cover for it, otherwise I'd tack it onto the end of this one. I am not planning on including Hoenn in the story, but if people are interested I can write it, but it would be an Au within this Au, which would include pairings, because of how I work.**

**Thank you to everyone who favs, reviews and follows! Next story to be updated will be Yesterday, then Master or maybe I will do the next story in the Painting Traveller series: get a chapter or two posted, instead of writing the whole thing first. Bye!**


	8. Cerulean City

**Chapter 8: Cerulean City **

**Just want to thank everyone for reviewing, favouriting and following! I hope you enjoy it all. I really enjoyed this chapter, we don't have the next gym battle, though. I changed something in the previous chapter, but I am not convinced I got it right. it's not much, just I mentioned the had a nap on the mountain.**

**I want to include Galar in this game, having just finished sword and shield, and my current plan is for Ash and Leah to go there after Sinnoh and the battle frontier, (remembering no Hoenn!) but feel free to leave some ideas.**

**P****okemon List:**

**Ash: Riolu, Froakie, Pidgeotto**

**Leah: Star (Staravia,) Snivy, Clefairy**

**Brock: Binacle, Onix, Geodude, Zubat**

**Misty: Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Leaf: Blossom (Bulbasaur), Polly (Poliwag.)**

**Gary: Squirtle, Pidgey**

**Anabel: Alakazam (times 2), Espeon, Metagross.**

**Nothing should change, I don't think.**

* * *

Being teleported was really a bizarre feeling, or so Ash thought. What happened was, you saw you were in your current location one second, then a different one the next. Despite that, Ash couldn't see why it was not a well-used method of travel.

He had only heard of people with psychic-type pokémon using it, (unsurprisingly, considering most pokémon couldn't learn the move,) even then though, it was generally high-up people, such as Anabel, or psychics who used it, and that was rare even then. He would have to ask Anabel about it because besides how bizarre it was, there was nothing wrong with it for getting to a location.

After teleporting, they reappeared right outside a pokémon centre which was hopefully the one in Cerulean City. When Ash asked, Misty confirmed that it was indeed that one. Surrounding the building was what looked like a garden, which probably belonged to the centre, then there were houses beyond that border. They couldn't see all the way around to where the training areas probably were, because of the shape of the pokémon centre.

Seeing the sun in the sky now, Leah saw it was late morning. She scratched her head trying to work out how that worked, but then she decided that having that nap in Mt Moon must have meant it was night by the time they confronted Team Rocket, and morning by the time they left. Before now, she hadn't looked at the sky or considered if it might be later than it should be.

Star and Riolu loved the flowers and went to admire them, along with Onix, Starmie and Espeon when Misty, Brock and Anabel released them to have a play. Across the street, there was a fountain that was very pretty: it was shaped like a primarina, and the sun shining off the water made it sparkle. Star dragged Leah over there for some reason, and she returned a few seconds later saying Star had wanted her to leave a coin in the fountain.

"It's a way to get closer with your pokémon. Or... well... it's a tradition, to be honest, and that's what we say it does," Misty said. After her saying that Ash shot off over there to do what Leah just did.

The city itself, unlike Pewter, seemed to be done in blue colours, which was fitting considering the name. Also, unlike Pewter, this city was going more for the style of a town, whereas pewter looked more like... well, a city.

They went inside the centre, then up to Nurse Joy and handed their Pokemon over, then booked some rooms. Misty offered to put Leah, Ash and Brock up in their house, but they declined. Leah and Ash had both seen pictures of Misty's sisters, and staying with them when they had Brock would be a very irritating and not very enjoyable experience. Maybe another time if they came without him.

Anabel also booked a room, or rather, she asked Leah if she would share, (Leah agreed, for one she liked Anabel and two she'd have to pay less,) which was unexpected, or so Ash thought. He thought she'd teleport home when the day was done, or go wherever she had to go next.

They decided to go shopping, but before they left, Anabel had said, "I have to ring the base about something. Won't be too long!"

As they waited, Brock remarked, "I guess she's handing her report over."

An hour to half an hour later, Anabel got off the phone. By which point, Ash, Riolu and Star had been getting very bored. Ash had been complaining, and Star had started plotting something, whilst being annoyed by Riolu.

"I'm sending them my full report later, but that will keep them happy for now. They insisted on giving you all a cash reward, too, by the way. It will be transferred in the next few days," Anabel said, rejoining the group.

"We didn't do much!" Leah protested.

"Yeah, helping get rid of people like Team Rocket is part of our job," Misty said, agreeing with Leah's statement.

"You made my job easier if nothing else. That has to count for something," Anabel said. She wanted to give them something, so she had specially asked for Jarred (her boss) to give the children and teenagers a reward of some sort, but there was no need to mention that.

Now that they were all ready, they headed down to the pokémart. Ash, while waiting for Anabel, had heard there was a really good deal on pokéketchs and other things like that, and Anabel said she needed more supplies, so it was a win-win. They walked down the street past the fountain, then passed a few restaurants, and some other interesting looking shops, till they came to one of the crossroads in the town.

They also saw the motor vehicle entrance and the grand car park for cars, trunks and the likes: to transport supplies to the shops, Misty said they got pokémon to help. Brock and Anabel said that was the case for most cities, and that Kanto's Pokémon League wanted to keep the cities accident free, which was why they tried to keep the cars out of the. On the way, they had discussed when they would challenge the gym.

"So, when are you two going to challenge me? I want to be the one to battle you two, not that my sisters will mind. I will need to know when so I can prepare, first," Misty asked.

"I don't know. When do you think we should go, Leah?" Ash said.

"Me?! How am I supposed to know?!" Leah cried, feeling put on the spot.

"Tomorrow?" Ash suggested.

"Tomorrow?!" Leah exclaimed, panicked.

"Don't worry, Leah: you and Ash did heaps of training on the way here, you should be fine," Brock said reassuringly. It didn't take a genius to work out Leah's problem with it.

"Okay," Misty nodded. With that in mind, she realised she'd have to head off straight away.

When they came to the next fork in the road, Misty left them as she had to go left to the gym, while they had to go right to get to the pokémart. After saying goodbye, they walked on.

"Anabel, why are you staying, can I ask? Couldn't you teleport back wherever you need to go? Surely you don't need to walk home?" Ash asked, taking note of the same thing Leah had earlier, though it was a little later than before.

"I can give my report via video call, now I will write it, scan it, and then text it in so they have a physical copy. Currently, no challengers are doing the battle frontier, anyway, so there is no need for me to star there constantly, as there is my referee and a pair of trainees who live in at the Battle Tower. Anyway, I want to watch you two have your battle against Misty," Anabel responded.

"Really? Wow! Thank you!" Ash said while both he and Leah blushed.

After gathering urgent supplies, they came to the Pokégear, pokéketch and stuff similar. There were a few varieties of communication devices, and all the things came in four colours, pink, red, green and blue. Leah brought the cheapest pokégear, (pokégears, are the cheapest compared to pokénavs and stuff,) which could still take and make calls, had the Johto and Kanto maps, and could keep other numbers: she got it in pink.

Ash, on the other hand, got an Xtransceiver with some of the C-gear components, and it also showed the person he was calling, had a radio, and maps of all the regions. Leah's was the cheapest while Ash had gotten the higher end one, and was a different model. Brock got a cheap pokénav, despite Ash advising against it. Leah also brought a brushes kit.

However, Leah ended up getting the same thing as Ash, after Ash pointing out that the reward money should mean she wasn't set back after this, and it would save her in the long run.

Because it only had two maps, she'd either have to get it updated which normally cost money, or buy a whole new one. Plus, there were the extra features the pokéketches didn't have: she ended up with a green one, as it was being sold for a cheaper price due to a weird hole it had on the underside. It looked as though something was supposed to go in there.

After paying for everything, they went outside where they met Anabel. Anabel had excused herself to wait outside as she had a fear of crowds, which was understandable. After that, they had a quick tour of the town, then they returned to the Pokémon Centre and dropped their new purchases off, had lunch then headed out to do some training.

Everyone released their pokémon, once they got to the small training grounds the pokémon centre owned. Considering the size of the city, it seemed like a very small area for training. Ash and Leah released their Pokémon for training, while Brock groomed his. Anabel had stayed in her room, to do her report and talk to the appropriate people about Team Rocket.

She had gone over the very basics before when she called them, just so they knew what happened and everyone's roles, and put through her special request, but now they wanted the detailed report for the files, and then Lance Drackious, the champion, and the elite four would want a copy for their records.

"So, have you looked at Clefairy's details yet?" Ash asked. They were standing nearby Brock, but he was a distance away and had his back towards them, currently.

"No," Leah said, pulling her pokédex out.

"_Clefairy, the fairy pokémon._

_It is said happiness will come to those who see a gathering of clefairy under a full moon. The moonlight that it stores in the wings on its back apparently gives it the ability to float in midair._

_This Pokemon is on level ten, female with the ability Cute Charm, and is slightly smaller than the average. It knows, Disarming voice, pound, growl, encore, sing and double slap."_

"Gee, she knows a lot of moves," Leah remarked.

"Some pokémon have a lot of moves at lower levels, most of which they can know when they're born. Then because she is on level ten she would have learnt at least two of the moves," Brock explained, making them realise he had been listening in.

"Right. So don't the Starly, Riolu or Snivy lines have a lot of those? And what about Pidgeotto?" Leah asked.

"Well, some pokémon on level twenty have been known to know two moves, these are wild ones, a lot of wild pokémon struggle to learn my than four unless they're being trained by trainers, some are only able to remember two. Yes, they don't," Brock nodded.

"Don't forget, when we got them they were on lower levels, too," Ash added.

Then the two trainers got training. After doing some increasing of stats and practice battles, Ash and Leah were trying to teach their Pokemon move tutor moves. They were a bit more experienced now, and Ash thought they could do it. Brock had finished his grooming soon after they started that, and came over to help.

Ash was trying to teach Riolu Thunder Punch: he thought that would be handy. The first step was, trying to get Riolu to be able to find the electricity he had in his body, and they were starting by accessing it through creating static energy.

Because every pokémon goes back to the same pokémon, same type, (normal is the oldest existing, but before that, one called gold existed and all types go back to that one,) and every type, every pokémon has a bit of energy from all the types. Some, however, couldn't access some of the types, for whatever reason. It was perhaps because of how some pokémon were designed like most water-types could not channel electricity, as most didn't have anything to channel it through, so they'd end up electrocuting themselves.

Pidgeotto was continuing to perfect Steel Wing, and Ash was trying to teach her Aerial Ace. There was a TM for it, but apart from gyms, no one else gave TMs unless it was a reward, you bought it, or something else, but mostly it was possible to teach the attack anyway. It was generally possible unless it was a type that would struggle to channel the energy, as TMs gave them the attack and how to channel power.

Aerial Ace was fun, so far the only thing Pidgeotto had managed was to crash into the ground, which she was not happy about it. Brock made both trainer and pokémon feel better by saying at least she had the speed. The control and rest of the attack needed working on.

At the same time, Pidgeotto was learning Agility, which because she was learning Aerial Ace meant she could learn it an earlier level than normal. Ash didn't know how much he would gain, but all well.

Froakie was learning Water Pulse. The first thing he had to do was create a small bubble of water between his hands, and have it move as if the move psychic was holding it together. He was also learning Role Play, and Geodude was the Pokemon he was trying to copy.

Leah and her team. Meanwhile, was trying to teach Clefairy Drain Punch. The fairy type was very eager to learn, it turned out, which was handy for more than one reason. The first thing that was needed was to practice punching, and getting that strong so the punch was filled with what was called 'fighting-type energy.'

Snivy had been hard, he had been very picky to choose a move for, and in the end, they settled on Aqua Tail, which would be the hardest for him to learn. He was starting with channelling the water onto his tail, then he had to work on not absorbing it straight away like he naturally did.

Then Star: she was learning Pluck. First thing was for her to learn to peck, then it would be memorising the smells of berries. "Where pokémon normally hold berries, if they have them, is the place where pluck will do the most damage, and eventually, when Star changes the motion to be more like plucking, she'll just know all those spots," Brock explained, and Leah nodded understandingly. Though, she wasn't sure if she understood.

By the end, Pidgeotto was almost on level nineteen, and had learnt agility, and could now not crash when using Aerial Ace speed. Froakie was now on level fifteen, which meant he learnt Water Pulse. That surprised Ash until he looked it up and saw Froakie learnt that move via level up. Froakie was showing a lot of signs of evolution, which means it was a level or two before he would evolve. Ash was excited: his first pokémon to evolve!

Riolu was on the same level as Pidgeotto, to a little further from the next level. Riolu had managed to work out how to create electricity, but now he needed to be able to access it without the friction. But, it was a start.

Star was on level sixteen, very painfully close to the next level. So close it was very annoying. Pluck was coming along very quickly, in a couple more training sessions she'd have it, most likely.

Snivy was on level fifteen and was showing signs of evolution, though he was further off than Froakie. He hadn't gotten anywhere with his new move, nor had he learnt any through levelling up.

Clefairy was now on level fourteen, almost fifteen. She had learnt defence curl and had made a bit of progress with Drain Punch. Leah asked if Clefairy evolved, or how to evolve it, and Brock replied she'd need a Moon Stone which is only found in Mt Moon.

"We'll go there next time we go and visit my hometown!" Ash suggested.

It was evening now, so after giving all the pokémon except Snivy a brush, they were all returned to the pokeballs before the trainers headed inside. After handing their Pokemon over to Nurse Joy (whom Brock declared his undying love for, again,) they went to the cafeteria for dinner.

After grabbing their meal and sitting down, Anabel came in. She joined them after getting her dinner. They sat in silence for a little while before they started talking. "How did the training go?" Anabel asked.

"it went well!" Ash said brightly.

"It was okay," Leah said, nodding slightly. She was being typical Leah.

"They both were doing well in their training," Brock added.

"That's good. These last two and a half hours have been a nightmare for me: such a rigmarole, so many people to talk to, and most were disorganised, so it took ages to get any information across! I wrote the report and sent it in, but then some of them wanted to question me!" Anabel exclaimed sounding annoyed.

"Yeah, that does sound pretty bad," Brock nodded with a grimace. That was a nice thing about being away from the gym! He remembered spending a day or so doing gym report, including what he thought of the challengers while trying to look after his brothers and sisters. His mind went to his siblings, and he hoped his father was keeping up to all their needs.

"How many pokémon does the gym use? Do any of you have any ideas?" Ash asked.

"I am pretty sure it's two or three," Brock said thoughtfully.

"I thought it was two, but I wasn't sure," Ash nodded. Then he said, "I will probably use Riolu and Froakie. Riolu because he's my first pokémon and we're close, and Froakie because I think he'll be right at home in the water."

"Good idea. It is great practice for the League which has water battlefields as well," Anabel nodded.

"I think I'll use Clefairy and Snivy, as I don't want Star to accidentally end up in the water. I just hope Clefairy will be alright," Leah said quietly.

"Great idea. Snivy has the type advantage, and Clefairy was doing well today," Brock said.

"She should be fine. Fairy-types adapt easily and are very accommodating. She should be able to get used to the field quickly, and their lovely pokémon for trainers of all levels," Anabel nodded.

When they finished eating, they chatted for a little longer before deciding to retire to bed. They collected their pokémon, then when they arrived at the first of the rooms they were staying in, they bid each other goodnight.

Just before they went to bed though, Anabel and Leah were playing a game of cards, while Ash cursed about the fact he had forgotten to ask Anabel about teleportation. Brock just laughed and said he could do it tomorrow.

"Your an orphan, aren't you, Leah?" Anabel said, starting a conversation.

"Yes, but how did you know? I haven't mentioned it!" Leah said, flustered.

"It's on your trainer profile on the league site," Anabel stated.

"Trai, tr, train, tra, trainer profile?" Leah asked.

"Yes. Just log into WPL, (World Pokémon League) type your name in, or whoever you're looking for, and there! Found! Unless they don't have a trainer's license," Anabel explained.

"Yes, that is right. I was left at my orphanage when I was very young, I don't remember my parents, I think it would be amazing if I could. I've often thought I'd like to go and find them, but I have no idea how to go about it. Not to mention I am kind of scared, too. Will they be disappointed in me? Will they be nice? What if there someone really horrible or very famous? People will judge me then, or have expectations!" Leah said, ranting.

"Leah, don't worry about it. Who bore you does not affect who you are: you are Leah Lin, not a clone of your parents. Besides, they can't have cared for you that much, considering they left you there with not even leaving a note! But, keep an eye out, and if in a few years you still want to know, do a harder search then," Anabel said, reach over and rubbing Leah's arm.

"Thanks, Anabel. Though, there could be other answers," Leah suggested.

"Yes, but, who knows? I just don't want your journey to be ruined by it, and it all turns out to be something which scares, disappoints or destroys you," Anabel said. "My parents were very different people from each other and me. Mum was a famous coordinator, the first female co-ordinator from a family of them, her family thought girls should be house-wives, and while she didn't believe in that, her personality was more of that line. She wanted me to follow the path to becoming a coordinator and was disappointed for a few long time when I said no. She's proud now, she says, though I suspect she still hopes I'll decide to go and do contests," Anabel continued.

"Then dad: for most my life he wasn't there, always 'travelling' for his work or so he said, and I used to dream and look forward to him coming, and I wrote him letters, and he was a big disappoint every time. He had no interest in anything, besides money and drinking. He was very rude and nasty to me. My mum left him just before I joined the battle frontier. Who knows what happened to him now? I don't really care, either," Anabel finished.

"Really? Wow. I don't think I could cope with that, and I think I'd end up changing paths just to make my mother happy," Leah admitted. "Thanks for sharing that."

"No problem. Just remember, no one, friend, family, parent or foe: doesn't matter, none of them have any right to tell you what you should do," Anabel said giving her a small smile. A few minutes later they finished playing cards and went to bed.

* * *

**Now, vote on my poll! and leave your Galar ideas! Any idea I had was Leah goes there instead of going with Ash to Sinnoh, but that will change the overall plot a lot. And when I get to posting chapter ten, I am going to go back and try and improve all the chapters, so they'll be a long break.**

**I can't think of anything more, so goodbye! I'll add more with an edit if so. PS, I love Frozen 2! I uploaded this chapter in a hurry as my computer is dying!**


	9. Gym Battle Match 1 and Sisters of Misty!

**Chapter 9: Enter the Sensational sisters and a watery battle**

**Hello everyone! Yes, I have broken my update trends but I have reasons. One: I have been watching and playing lots of pokemon recently. Two: I just keep getting ideas for this and it's really exciting me. three: I changed something on one of my polls.**

**About that: I decided to move Riley as an option for Ash's papa, for two reasons. One, I find it boring and a bit likely, and two, I wanted the aura to come from Delia's side of the family, and that would defeat the purpose. So, I'm really sorry! But I have my reasons! I will live it up for a week, then change back to Leah's parents for a while.  
Another thing: Should Ash catch charmander? or should Leah or Brock? And should catch Primape? All important questions! We have a special appearance from a certain character. Can you guess who it is? **

**Another thing: After Sinnoh and Battle Frontier, along with Johto and Kanto, Ash and Leah will go to Galar, and Leah will stay there because (spoilers!)**

**Pokemon List: (which I copied from the previous chapter, believing there are no differences!)  
**

**Ash: Riolu, Froakie, Pidgeotto**

**Leah: Star (Staravia,) Snivy, Clefairy**

**Brock: Binacle, Onix, Geodude, Zubat**

**Misty: Starmie, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Jessie: Ekans**

**James: Koffing**

**Anabel: Alakazam (times 2), Espeon, Metagross.**

**Enjoy**

* * *

The next morning, after they had breakfast and done some laps around the battlefields at the pokémon centre, Ash and co were headed to the gym which was in a part of town they were yet to explore, though they hadn't explored much of Cerulean City, as it was a bit of a hole. It was more of a residential city, so there wasn't much to see, nor were there many shops.

As they walked to the gym, Ash was cheerfully skipping ahead of the group, whistling as loud as he could with Riolu right by him, albeit not whistling: this was normal. Leah and Star were not too far behind, trying to keep up, and Brock and Anabel were behind her, not making an effort to keep up figuring they would not lose them.

Anabel had her Espeon out, walking with her like Riolu and Star were with Ash and Leah, but Brock did not have a pokémon out. With none that good with being out, except for geodude, zubat didn't like the light, Onix was too big, and binacle was not that manoeuvrable, leaving Geodude. But he was ideal, as he tended to put dents in paved roads like this one, so Brock didn't bother, not wanting to vandalise a town like that or get fined for the act.

"I'm feeling nervous, but a little less nervous than last time," Leah said, her voice shaking slightly.

"Star?" Star cooed, rubbing her head against Leah's affectionately.

"You'll be fine! It's only Misty, after all!" Ash said cheerfully, slowing down a little to be walking with Leah.

"Yes. Winning a gym battle and losing them are all part of life, it doesn't really matter, so just keep calm," Anabel said reassuringly, raising her voice so the two young trainers could hear. "I won my first five badges all really easily, but I had awful troubles after that: I had to re-battle all the gym-leaders, and I had to battle one four times before I go the badge!"

"Staravia!" Star cried, nodding.

"I think Star is trying to calm you down too," Brock commented.

"Thanks, everyone. Just keep calm, just keep calm," Leah said, repeating that. She did look a little calmer now, which the others thought was a win.

A few minutes later, they arrived outside the gym and were not sure what to make of it. The shape of the building reminded them of a circus tent, the roof was also brightly coloured which didn't help. There were doors or windows all the way around as far as they could see, meaning despite the verandah it would be pretty light in the outer rooms. There was what looked like waves going around the building just where the roof ended, then a big dewgong on the front, clearly visible for miles.

They walked closer to the gym, and they saw the room they were about to walk into looked like a reception, with several different corridors going off it then a couple of doors, that probably led to rooms like the rooms for filing cabinets. As they entered the gym, Ash noticed some stairs that went up to somewhere... He wondered what was up there.

Brock, on the other hand, noticed the receptionist rather than the layout of the room: a pretty young woman with light green hair. He then rushed over and declared his undying love for her, almost pushing Leah over and causing Star to fall off her shoulder, who lost balance and took to the air: she squeaked at Brock with a deadly glare, not at all impressed. Brock's silliness made the poor desk girl look very awkward, as she tried to kindly tell Brock she wasn't interested, but he didn't listen, sadly.

As Brock flirted with the receptionist, the others tried to work out what to do. "What should we do?" Ash asked.

"_How about we push him out of the way_?" Riolu suggested.

"Great idea!" Ash nodded. Then he ran up, and gave Brock a massive shove, causing him to lose balance and fall over. Leah, Anabel, and their pokémon just stared, confused at what happened. Anabel clicked first. "Riolu must have communicated to him to suggest to try and barge past Brock," Anabel asked, then she tried to remember if she had noticed this before.

"What? Oh yes! That's right! I keep forgetting Ash and Riolu can communicate seamlessly! That explains it!" Leah nodded, clicking her fingers. They walked over to be next to Ash, who was starting to chat with the now relieved looking receptionist. Brock had been pushed onto the ground, and he was groaning as he stood up.

Espeon, Riolu and Star moved up closer to their trainers, and Star landed on Leah's shoulder, having flown off to glare at Brock earlier. She reflected on how much Leah had changed, even since Star first met her just under two months ago. The girl had been very nervous to even speak, and now she had some confidence and spoke out more often, or more to the point, she spoke out. Her friendship with Ash, Misty and Brock had done wonders for her.

Riolu at an earlier point was thinking along similar lines. But it was more about Ash. Riolu almost believed Ash could wield magic, a power beyond aura. People got very relaxed around him and friendly quite quickly, and he had installed a lot more confidence in Leah, or been a major player in that happening. Riolu could not think of any other way to explain it, other than magic.

"If your here for the show, I'm afraid it's almost over," the receptionist said sweetly.

"Show?" Leah and Ash asked, looking and feeling very confused. They didn't know anything any shows, especially any held at this gym. Their Pokemon had similar thoughts.

"Isn't this a gym?" Anabel asked, frowning, also confused.

"It's the sensational sisters' monthly performance, isn't it? The lovely Daisy, Violet and Lily Waterflower perform a beautiful underwater ballet with water-type pokémon! I saw one and it was amazing! They'll all so beautiful! There also Misty's older sisters!" Brock said, jumping up, and going... weird.

"That's right. Yes, this is also an official league gym," The receptionist nodded, partly ignoring Brock.

"Well, we're here for a gym battle with Misty; she's expecting us, I think," Ash said, rolling his eyes at Brock.

"Ah! Finally! Hello, Ash! Leah! Anabel! Brock!" The voice of Misty cried. There had been footsteps, gradually coming closer, then when Misty spoke, the footsteps became the sound of someone running.

"Hi, Misty!" Ash said brightly, seeing her enter the room.

"Hi," Leah nodded. The others (including Star and Riolu) greeted Misty as well.

"Maple, I will take it from here, their friends of mine and their the challengers I mentioned earlier," Misty said, smiling at the receptionist, Maple. The lady nodded, then Misty gestured for Ash and co to come through and follow her down the hall.

"We have to wait a little bit for the show to finish, as we don't have a referee at the moment and Maple's too busy, so one of my sisters has to do it. They annoy the hell out of me, but they're very nice people and are efficient around the gym," Misty said, sighing as they walked down one of the corridors.

"I noticed with myself and my other siblings: we do things quite often which annoys me or one of the others," Brock said sympathetic, having his own sibling experiences.

"Yes, I think that's pretty normal," Anabel nodded. That's what she had heard, but she was not one hundred percent sure, not having any siblings of her own, only one much younger cousin she'd never met in the Alola Region. The others all nodded, believing Brock and Anabel.

Misty led them down the corridors of the gym: this gym seemed much bigger than the Pewter Gym had seemed, though they didn't see much of it except for the battlefield. They were led to a big room with a high roof that was invisible, and there were huge stands on every wall, except for one, which had a background drawn onto it, or so it looked like, along with platforms and springboards to jump off of. Ash noticed the stands started a fair way off the ground, he supposed if something was happening underwater it would be easier to see. It was hard to see all the details of the room, though, as except for a certain spot in the middle of the pool lit up with spotlights, the room was pitch black.

After taking in the room, they all noticed three women, (it took a while to work that much out, considering how far away they were,) probably Misty's sisters, doing tricks in the middle of the pool, and some incorporated pokémon while they did their own routine: Golduck, Brionne, Starmie, Seel, Samurott and Simipour were among the pokémon they spotted during the five minutes they watched. Ash also thought he saw a Seaking swimming around, it's vibrant colouring seemingly glowing in the dark. Leah recognised some of the pokémon, but she did have to ask what some were. Misty mentioned her sisters had a team of six each, then there were ten more used just for performances.

"This is a normal room for gym battles, but we have a smaller battlefield which we will use, as it takes us a few days to get this back into order to be a battlefield rather than a stage for a show," Misty said. "As of late, I have been using that when even when there isn't a show coming up or just passing, and I may just change to that. This pool is really a bit big, and I don't want to get in trouble with the league by having a pool not to league standards."

"Does it take a few days to set up, too?" Anabel asked curiously, and Misty nodded.

"Espi!" Espeon cried, trying to catch Anabel's attention. Anabel bent down and patted her Pokemon, and gave it a rub. Leah saw Espeon loved it when Anabel rubbed its face.

Seven, ten minutes later, the show finished and Misty's sisters, more often known as the sensational sisters, did their final bow and everyone clapped, including Ash and co. When the sensational sisters were out of sight, the lights came on, and all the people in the stands started to leave.

"This way," Misty said without hesitating. She walked forward across the room, and the others quickly followed. They entered another corridor on the other side of a pool, and Ash briefly wondered if any of the spectators paid them in attention as they crossed the room, he somehow thought they wouldn't.

They passed a few more rooms, including what looked like changing rooms. They also saw a bathroom and another room, which Ash thought looked like the pokéball storage room at Oak's lab. Eventually, they came to a room with a watery battlefield in the middle, and the room was about half the size of the room with the other pool. The pool was about thirty by forty metres wide and was mostly water with a few floating platforms scattered throughout, which was confident. Otherwise, it would be hard to use pokémon who couldn't swim in the battle, if not impossible for most, and certainly all of Ash and Leah's, except for Froakie: Pidgeotto and Star would be okay, but birds were not good with water and would be useless if they landed in it. If that occurred, the only thing to do was to retire.

There were two grandstands which covered the walls on either side lengthways of the pool, and two other corridors going off this room. Leah thought the whole gym was a maze, and Ash thought it seemed like a Bunnelby warren.

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"Now, who's going first?" Misty asked, after giving everyone the chance to take the scenery in.

"How about you, Leah? It seems fair, as I went first last time," Ash suggested after a minute of silence had passed.

"What?! Me?!" Leah exclaimed, sounding a little panicked. Ash knew she couldn't help it, but this was getting a bit old, and he was getting sick of it. He hoped as time went on, Leah would grow out of it, so to speak.

"You'll be fine," Anabel said reassuringly. Ash was glad she said that, because he was sure if he tried to reassure Leah it would sound false to some degree.

"Besides, it would be better for you if you went first, as it's over quicker, and you don't have to sit there worrying and getting even more nervous while Ash battled," Brock said, giving the advantages.

"I thought you wouldn't mind or jump at the chance. I can go first if you really want, but think of it as a new experience!" Ash said, trying to be convincing.

"I'm not going to bite: try and keep calm, but don't forget to have fun, too, Leah," Misty said, giving a reassuring smile.

"Okay," Leah nodded, looking slightly more confident. Which wasn't great or ideal for her or her pokémon, but it was an improvement on just before when she was on her way to a panic attack.

Ash thought, "_At least she agreed."_

"Now we just have to wait for one of my sisters to come. Let's go and be ready to start as soon as they come," Misty suggested. Leah nodded, and she went to the closer end of the pool and stood in a blue square, while Misty went to the other end and stood in what looked like a red square. Ash and the others went up and sat in the grandstand on the opposite side to what they were standing just before.

While they waited, Ash wondered which law had it written that the gym-leader had the red square and or flag. All gyms had different coloured flags and the league tournaments, usually red and green, but not necessarily coloured squares. Pewter City gym didn't have them, albeit Ash didn't think it would suit a rock gym. Ash now noticed there were a horsea and a shellder on the wall behind Misty.

A good five minutes of waiting around passed before they heard any footsteps, and even then it was at least a minute before they saw the owner of the footsteps. Out of one of the five doorways leading off this room, came three ladies: one with blue hair, one with yellow hair and one with red hair, all giggling and chatting as they walked into the room.

"Hi everyone! How did it look, Misty? I thought our dives at the start were totally awesome," the yellow-haired girl asked, looking around and waving before looking directly at Misty.

"Looked great, Daisy, Vi, Lil," Misty said honestly. Then she raised her voice and said, "Sisters, this is Leah, my first challenger and one of the people I travelled with. And that's her starter, Star. The boy up there with the cap is another friend, his name's Ash and that's his partner Riolu: he's the other challenger. Then there's Brock and Anabel. You guys, these are my sisters, Daisy, then Violet and that's Lily." Misty pointed to everyone as she said their names.

Ash and the others in the stands couldn't hear what Misty said, but they could find out from Riolu and Espeon, who had better hearing or could use their powers to listen to what Misty said, then they gave the message to Ash or Anabel, who told Brock and the other trainer.

After a quick discussion, it was decided Daisy would referee. The other two went up into the stands, which made Brock go all googled eye over them, but fortunately, he stayed where he was, which was nice, as it meant Ash could just ignore him and continue chatting to Anabel and didn't have to restrain him or anything. He wasn't sure how long pushing Brock over would work for, anyway, especially on a grandstand: it would be hard work. The other two sisters sat on the other side of the walkway, and then two rows back.

He took note of the fact Lily's hair was shorter than the others, and while he couldn't see any accessories in Violet's hair, it looked like Daisy had a pink flower. They all had a jacket on, but only Daisy's was done up, meaning they could still see the elegant swimsuits they wore underneath.

"Okay," Daisy said, seeing Leah and Misty both looked ready. "This will be a two on two pokémon battle. The battle will be over when both pokémon on either side are unable to battle, and only the challenger may substitute. Understand?"

After Leah and Misty nodded, Daisy said, holding up a red flag to Misty's side and a green to Leah's, "Begin!"

"Goldeen! Go and get 'em!" Misty said, throwing a Pokéball. What came out was her goldeen, who gave a friendly cry and wave to Star after hitting the water.

Leah turned to Star and said, "You won't be in this battle, but you'll cheer us on, right? I, at least, need all the support I can get, and I'm sure the others would appreciate it, too."

"Staravia!" Star cried, saying she would. Birds did not like getting wet, so Star was not too unhappy about missing out this time.

"Right, Clefairy! I need your help!" Leah said, throwing the pokéball of the pink fairy-type.

Clefairy, after coming out looked around nervously, had what looked like a freeze. Either the idea of fighting over water or in the building scared her, Leah was not sure which: no one else noticed this happen. Clefairy had worked out that this was a gym battle, Leah theorised, and she felt very, very nervous as a result, along with something else.

"We'll be okay! It might be your first gym battle, but you'll be great," Leah said, trying to reassure her pokémon. Clefairy looked slightly better, but the difference was minimal.

"That's not a promising start," Brock commented, not seeing what had happened except for the tail end where Leah talked to her pokémon.

"What do you think Clefairy is scared of or nervous about?" Ash asked.

"I'd say it's a case of stage fright. Something which can happen, though not very common. With experience and time, she'll get better," Anabel said, reading between the lines, and trying to read Clefairy's thoughts with little success.

Fairy-types, like Psychic-types, had a natural ability to block their thoughts from being read, among other things, and they could block it, which was happening now. Ash meanwhile, wondered what the difference between being a partial psychic and a full psychic, and if it were possible to have a partial aura-user.

"You start, Leah! Only fair the challenger makes the first move!" Misty called.

"Thanks! Use disarming voice, Clefairy! You'll need to use it in a few different spots!" Leah ordered, nodding at Misty. She was noticing Goldeen swam around in the water, unsurprisingly, which would make it harder to hit. She hoped she and Clefairy could work out a way to hit it, otherwise, this would be a very hard battle for them to win. While disarming voice could home a little bit, she would need the attack to be reasonably close to start with, for it to even have a chance of hitting.

"Swim around, Goldeen! And when you're behind Clefairy, use peck!" Misty ordered.

Goldeen did exactly has her mistress said. Leah looked around, slightly panicked, trying to work out how to counter what Misty was doing. She managed to come up with something to counter it, and she told herself off for taking so long to think of something as obvious as this.

None of Clefairy's attacks from before hit, but when Leah saw Goldeen was about to burst out of the water, she cried, hoping Clefairy would respond in time, "Move left then use double slap!"

"Stop Goldeen!" Misty cried. She was a little late, as by that stage Goldeen was already half out of the water, meaning she landed on the platform Clefairy was standing on. This was a stroke of luck for Leah and Clefairy, as it meant Clefairy got to use double-slap five times before Goldeen could flop away back into the water.

"Now! Jump and use tail whip! Show off the tricks you know!" Misty called.

Golden jumped into the air, and while she was there, she whipped her tail to use tail whip, lowering Clefairy's defence. "Use growl!" Leah called, seeing a chance to make Goldeen less threatening. She had forgotten about and what encore did, otherwise she would have used that.

"Why didn't Leah use encore?" Anabel wondered as both status lowering attacks took effect: this would be the prime time to use that move.

"She probably forgot about it," Ash said thoughtfully. "I heard that a lot of trainers had trouble remembering all the moves pokémon can learn, so some trainers just limit their move pool to four or six. I will admit it is a struggle, but there are so many great moves! How would you just pick a select few? Besides, scanning your pokémon with the pokédex tells you all the moves they know."

"_She's feeling a bit stressed, meaning she'd be more likely to forget," _Riolu told Ash, reading Leah's aura. Ash passed that on to the other two.

The next attack Goldeen used was supersonic. She jumping in and out of the water to attack from all angles. Misty was really showing off her skill and talent as a gym leader, and showing she deserved her position. Brock remarked about that, too, clearly impressed by her skill.

Leah asked for Clefairy to dodge all the attacks. Clefairy did, however, she stumbled a bit and had to jump into the pool to avoid one. To make matters worse, Misty called for horn attack. Clefairy tried to get out, but she kept slipping on the edging as she tried to climb out, and wasn't strong enough to vault onto the platform meaning by the time she got out, Goldeen could easily prick the fairy in the bum and swim away again. Leah asked for pound before the goldfish pokémon got away, but Goldeen had dived back in by the time Clefairy had even turned around after being flung onto the platform from the horn attack.

Leah asked for Disarming voice again and said to keep attacking until she hit. It took about six minutes of just attacking before one got to hit, and Golden was ejected out of the pool onto another floating platform in the pool due to the power behind it. This was in Leah and Clefairy's favour, as it was just close enough Clefairy could jump to near Goldeen, and then use a close-range Disarming voice followed with double-slap, all before Misty's pokémon could even think.

"Surf!" Misty called.

Goldeen summoned the water behind and around her, turning it into a wave with Goldeen on top, which then went forward and pushed Clefairy off the platform, into a nearby one. Leah had heard of the attack from Ash's trainer guide, but she hadn't had any idea what it did, so she hadn't asked for Clefairy to dodge.

"Get back onto that platform please, Clefairy!" Leah asked.

She noted as Clefairy clambered onto said platform, she was very tired and sluggish. It wasn't surprising, considering that six minutes of using the one attack without stopping would have taken a lot of energy out of the fairy-type, and then she had taken damage from two attacks, maybe more: Leah couldn't remember. After opening her pokédex and looking surf up after the battle, she saw it was a powerful attack, which wouldn't have helped Clefairy's current state.

"Use Peck!" Misty called.

"Wait for it," Leah said, giving Clefairy a reassuring smile. She gave the smile after the concerned look Clefairy sent her way: that made Clefairy look happier and feel better.

Clefairy had been confused and wondered why her trainer had said that then after looking at Leah who gave her a smile, she realised her trainer was planning something. Probably a plot to trick goldeen so they could attack, she guessed.

Leah carefully watched Goldeen, then when she thought it was about to surface, she called, "Double-slap on Goldeen!"

"No! Get back!" Misty cried, shocked. Neither she or Goldeen were expecting that, or put it this way, there was nothing she could have about it. Misty admitted she thought Leah was planning something like that, but she could have hardly planned against it, considering Leah gave no inclination she was about to give a command: very sneaky and well done.

"L_eah's really on fire today, as is Clefairy," _Riolu said to Ash.

"Sure is," Ash nodded.

"What?" Lily asked. She and Violet had moved closer to be right next to Anabel right then, being bored and curious about what Ash was saying, whereas they were out of earshot before.

"Oh, well, Riolu just said Leah's on fire, and I agreed," Ash said hastily. The two girls (unaware of Ash's aura using abilities) just stared at him oddly.

Back to the battle now. Leah had just asked for a disarming voice, while Goldeen was commanded to use surf. Both attacks hit, and the pokémon were sent to either side of the battlefield, with Clefairy (thankfully) being face up. Leah was glad about that because otherwise she would be worried that clefairy would drown.

"Both pokémon are unable to battle! This battle is a draw!" Daisy cried, holding both flags up.

"Well done, Goldeen: you did great," Misty said smiling, pulling out Goldeen's pokéball and returning her fallen pokémon.

"Thank you, Clefairy," Leah said, doing the same thing. "I appreciated what you did for me."

"Okay, here is my next pokémon: he is very cute, but also very strong. Go on, Marill! I know you can do it!" Misty cried, releasing a pokémon in a well-polished great ball.

"Mar! Marill!" a blue roundish pokémon cried as it appeared. This was the aqua mouse pokémon, Marill.

"I didn't know you had a Marill," Leah remarked. Ash said something similar to the sisters.

"It had just evolved when I was about to head out, back just before I met you guys this was, so I left him here so he could get used to his new body easier and swimming in it," Misty said. Violet replied to Ash's comment, saying the same thing.

"Right, Snivy, I need your help!" Leah said, releasing Snivy's ball. Out came the green grass-snake pokémon, who was wearing his usual expression.

"Sniv," Snivy cried. He looked around, wondering why he was on such a tiny island, only to realise this was a battlefield. He turned around and sent a dirty glare Leah's way, saying he did not appreciate having to battle over water.

"Begin!" Daisy cried.

"I'll start if that's okay!" Misty asked/said.

"Sure!" Leah nodded, not having a problem and seeing it as fair. Even if she did have an issue, she was not the type to voice it.

"Ice Beam! Let's start strong!" Misty called.

"Dodge at all cost!" Leah cried, slightly panicked. She guessed it was an ice-type move considering ice was in the name, and she knew Snivy was weak against ice, so best to not be hit.

"Sniv!" Snivy nodded, knowing his weakness to the move, and how much it hurt to get hit by something that cold.

He jumped into the air, and the attack hit the water behind where he had been, creating another area for him to stand on. Leah hadn't thought of that, but it was convenient that it had happened, as it would quite likely be useful later on.

"Alright, it's our turn, Snivy! Vine Whip now!" Le1ah called, not sure how Snivy was going to hit Marill.

Leah might not have been sure how her pokémon would manage it, but Snivy did manage to work out how he was going to hit Marill, even with it jumping away or underwater. He scored the super-effective move and a critical hit after a few attacks had been launched, though all the others missed.

Leah knew it was still early days, but she couldn't help but start to relax a bit more and feel more confident. She was happy with Snivy and impressed with how he had worked out to do that, plus he got a sensitive spot that did even more damage.

"Use Surf!" Misty cried, grunting a small groan of annoyance.

"Dodge! Jump as high as you can!" Leah called.

Snivy nodded, and using his vines he managed to get very high into the air, and landed after Marill had used surf. Misty grunted again. "Fine! Use water gun five in a row!" she yelled.

"Jump to the left, then the right, and do a backflip!" Leah cried quickly.

Snivy nodded and did exactly what Leah said. They had done a bit of work on things like backflips for evasion training, but not much, so Leah was not sure how it would work. But, Snivy had proved he could do it, showing off how agile his body was. Yet again, she was impressed with his ability.

"Use Vine Whip again!" Leah cried.

"We are not falling for that! Hit it right on with Ice Beam!" Misty called.

"Withdraw it!" Leah shouted frantically.

"Sniv," Snivy growled, not sure how Leah expected him to do that. He flinched as the attack hit and took damage, and then he withdrew his vine. He was then hit with another one and sent flying, but the little grass-snake stood strong, managing to land on the ice platform from earlier.

"That's it!" Misty cheered, the attack being a critical hit. "Jump out of the water, then use Tail Whip!" Misty cried.

"Growl!" Leah called, not really sure what to do now.

They continued to battle for a little while after that, similar things happening. Snivy would use an attack or two, and one would hit, then Misty called for attack or two of her own. Then they would both use a stat changing attack after that. One of the Vine Whips Leah asked for Snivy decided to send one Leah's way too, just showing that he still was his own person, and was still a bit upset for having to battle in a pool.

"Do you think Snivy will ever get out of that?" Ash asked.

"I'd think so. He might feel that Leah isn't quite good enough yet, or maybe he's a bit arrogant, and eventually, he'll lose that. Either way, he will stop," Anabel replied, and Brock nodded to agree, having similar thoughts.

"Despite the lack of type advantage, I thought she looked like she was having an easier time with Clefairy VS Goldeen," Lily commented kindly.

"I agree," the others nodded.

Brock said as Snivy took a lot of damage from an ice beam, "It is starting to go downhill for Leah. If she doesn't find a way to change the tables and win, she could be in a lot of trouble."

Snivy huffed and puffed, but he still had some fight left in him. Leah asked for another Vine Whip at the Marill out of the pool. However, the Marill dodged and used tackle. Leah called for Snivy to intercept with his own tackle attack.

The attacks hit head-on, but they both quickly were sent back. Both pokémon were quite tired, so they couldn't hold it for long. Snivy was looking very tired: Ash was half expecting Overgrow to kick in.

Leah and Misty's Pokemon exchanged a couple more attacks until Snivy looked about ready to faint. Then, his body was surrounded by a green glow, the outline of vines could be seen within, they wrapped themselves around Snivy, seemly giving him more energy as he roared. "What?" Leah cried, pulling her pokédex out.

"Snivy!" Snivy cried, the aura flared up and out.

"Overgrow, right," She nodded, trying to remember if this happened before. She quickly stopped thinking, realising it would take too long before she got to the end of her thoughts. "Use Vine Whip!"

"Dodge! Water Gun!" Misty asked, knowing it would be bad to get hit by that supercharged attack.

Marill dodged and sent out a water gun. Snivy ducked, then used another vine whip. Everyone was impressed by this moment of quick thinking. What occurred next was Marill using Ice Beam and Tackle. Then Marill used tackle, as Snivy had flinched after being grazed by the Ice Beam.

"Wait for it," Leah said. "Vine Whip please!"

Snivy nodded and waited until the last moment before releasing Vine Whip. Marill was unable to dodge, and he took the attack head-on, which was a critical hit. That stopped Marill in his tracks.

"Now! Tackle!" Leah asked.

Snivy nodded and used the attack. Marill was still recovering from the vine whip, so he couldn't dodge this attack. Leah then asked for Vine Whip. Marill tried to dodge, but because he was feeling tired and there were two vines to avoid, he failed.

"Ice Beam! Let's finish this!" Misty cried. It had been a good battle, but both pokémon were very tired, so it was time to end it.

"Dodge!" Leah begged.

"Use Water gun until you hit, then ice beam!" Misty ordered.

Snivy jumped from side to side, back-flipped, and other fancy things like that, but with each one he got slower and slower, and the amount he dodged by got less and less until he was only just dodging, and the attack was brushing against him.

Leah watched, not sure what she could do. She called to her pokémon, "Use Vine Whip again!"

"Dodge!" Misty called.

"Keep attacking!" Leah called, believing this was it. She, like Misty, had come to realise that.

"Keep trying to dodge!" Misty cried.

For a short while, all that happened was Snivy attacked and then Marill dodged, kind of like a game of tag. The attacking and dodging game couldn't last forever, though. Snivy managed to hit Marill with Vine Whip, however, Misty quickly called, "Ice Beam!"

"Dodge!" Leah cried, closing her eyes. She couldn't watch anymore, Snivy was too close to get out of the way.

Snivy tried his best to dodge, but the battle had been long and hard, and he could barely move, so he let out a cry in pain, and held his ground until Marill stopped attacking, when he fell forward and relaxed.

"Snivy is unable to battle, Marill wins! The battle goes to Misty and Marill!" Daisy cried, only holding up the red flag.

"No! Snivy! You poor thing!" Leah groaned softly. She pulled Snivy's ball out, before speaking again. "Thanks, Snivy, you were great. It seems we aren't strong enough to beat Misty." She sighed. Star tried her best to comfort her and succeeded a little bit.

Misty returned Marill after praising him, then she and Daisy walked over to where Leah and the others (who had come down from the stands,) were standing. Misty said, smiling encouragingly and having a slight joke, "Great battle, Leah, I really enjoyed it. We were really close, so I'm sure next time you'll win: I will have to lift my game to even be a challenge!"

"Thanks, Misty," Leah said, giving a small smile.

"Yes, it was good. The most exciting battle I've seen in a long time. Almost made me want to be able to battle challenges again," Daisy said, sounding cheerful.

"You should! Daisy, despite what she might have you believe, is a really strong trainer: she did the Indigo League once, got to the final and lost by a whisker. She became Gym Leader after that, but it got too boring for her, or some lame excuse like that. That was the excuse she used when I was told I had be the leader, not that I complained," Misty said.

"Hey! It was for the best! Our performances have improved out of sight, and look how much you've improved!" Daisy exclaimed, defending herself.

"Anyway, are you ready to battle, Ash?" Misty asked, rolling her eyes and her sister.

"Yes! I was born ready! But don't you need to heal the ones you used?" Ash questioned.

"I'll take them and put them in the restoration machine. There are other pokémon she can use," Daisy said, answering the question for her sister. Misty pulled the two balls out and handed them to Daisy, who took them then walked off down one of the many corridors.

"I want to referee now!" Violet cried, exhilarated.

"Right. Can we start right away?" Ash asked.

"Sure," Misty nodded.

"I might go now and take my pokémon to the centre to be healed," Leah said timidly, edging towards they way Misty had taken them. It had been very complicated, so she hoped she could remember how to get back.

"Do you want to use our machine? It is exactly the same as the one there, except it's for our personal use and not the general public," Lily suggested.

"Okay, if you wouldn't mind," Leah nodded shyly. That way, she would get to see more of Ash's battle, rather than missing it all as she would otherwise.

"Star!" Star cried from Leah's shoulder.

"Come with me then," Lily cried excitedly, grabbing her by the wrist then leading Leah the same way Daisy went.

Meanwhile, Brock and Anabel went back to sit in the stands, and Ash and Misty went to stand at each end of the battlefield. Once they were ready, Violet quickly ran to where she was supposed to stand, realising she had gotten sidetracked thinking, and she was holding the battle up.

When Violet had the flags Daisy had dropped on the ground, she started to explain the rules for Ash and Misty's battle. As Ash waited for Violet to explain the rules, which were the same as Leah and Misty's, he tried to contain the excitement, and not dance around.

"Let's do this," Ash nodded to Riolu.

"_Yes, let's," _Riolu nodded.

* * *

**There, done! What did you think? Hopefully there was some character progression in this story, and I tried to make sure I had a bit from the pokemon, as I believe I have been lacking that, I will fix that when I go back later to re-edit.**

**Speaking of which, I have been toying with the idea of giving some of the pokemon nicknames along with Star. I would add them to the ones they have at current point when I do my re-edit. What do you guys think? Riolu, Clefairy, Froakie and Bulbasaur (he's yet to catch) won't have them, but I am not sure about many others. Food for thought, anyway.**

**Thanks, and see you! Thanks for reading, you guys can make or break my day. Stay safe with Covid-19, too!**


	10. Gym Battle Match 2 and Team Rocket

**Chapter 10: Ash's battle and team rocket**

**Here we are at chapter ten! By the time the next chapter is up, I will have revised the rest of the story, and written another chapter: I've currently got up to Vermillion City written, which is quite a long way. I'm hoping after the St Ann I can take a few shortcuts to get to the league quicker.**

**Pokemon List:  
Ash: Riolu, Froakie, Pidgeotto, **

**Leah: Star (Staravia), Clefiary, Snivy**

**Brock: Zubat, Bincle, Geodude, Onix**

**Misty: Starmie, Marill, Staryu, Goldeen**

**Anabel: Espeon, Alakazam (X2), Metagross**

**Same as the last chapter: we may have some changes for this one (wink). And sorry for springing Marill on you at the last second last chap, but it made sense for Misty to have others, and as revealed in this chapter, the gym has some it owns.**

**I decided to have Ash catch Charmander, and I think someone else will catch primeape if anyone. As I can't see Ash using it over Riolu currently, and there are other fighting-types I'd rather him have. Also, it's two chapters away, I think without checking, but we have a special appearance in that chapter. We have one here too, but probably not what you think!**

* * *

The rules for Ash and Misty's battle was to be the same as Leah's, (unsurprisingly,) meaning it would be a two on two, which suited Ash fine as he thought to who he would start with. Like Leah, he didn't think it would be a good idea to use his flying-type over a water battlefield, so he was happy not to need to use Pidgeotto. Albeit, typing wise, froakie wasn't a good choice, either.

Ash couldn't help but grin, despite the tough battle he knew was coming: he was really looking forward to this battle and had been waiting for it for ages. He quickly got back to thinking about who he would start with. He decided on starting with Froakie, to leave the stronger opponent for Riolu.

Ash was no fool, and he knew Froakie nor Riolu would be able to beat both Misty's pokémon, but he aimed for his frog friend to take down Misty's first choice, leaving the second and most likely stronger one for Riolu.

"Alright, I'm going to start with... Goldeen!" Misty cried, releasing a goldeen that must belong to the gym, as this one was a male, not the female Ash had gotten to know and was the one Leah and her team had battled. The goldeen Misty was using now looked as though it might be close to evolution.

"Froakie, your up!" Ash said, releasing his frog pokémon.

"As a lover of water-types, I approve!" Misty said with an approving smile.

"What are the chances of your goldeen evolving during the battle?" Ash asked, observing the fact goldeen was brightly coloured for his species and had abnormally large fins at the back of his body, suggesting evolution was just around the corner.

"Moderately likely, but Froakie looks like he also has the high possibility to evolve during this fight, too," Misty called back.

"Are you two going to talk all day? If so, can we go and get coffee?"

Violet asked boredly.

"Yes, we're starting now, Miss Impatient! We haven't been talking for that long! Start the battle now, Violet!" Misty said, rolling her eyes at her impatient sister.

"Violet did raise a good point," Anabel remarked to Brock. "If their going to talk for half an hour before starting the battle, coffee would have been nice."

"I agree. Do you think Violet would go and have coffee with me?" Brock asked, going love-heart eyed.  
"I doubt it. Even if she did, I have heard she is seen with a new boyfriend every fortnight," Anabel said, sweat dropping at Brock. "People say she enjoys trying out different boys."

"Oh," Brock moaned, flopping his upper body over his upper legs comically. Anabel tried not to laugh: she then sighed, hoping Leah would be back soon, as she was quickly getting sick of only Brock for company.

Leah meanwhile, had been taken to the restoration machine in a nearby room by Lily and Daisy. While there, she had had her pokémon healed, along with Misty's from their battle. They had gone about ten metres down the corridor away from the battlefield, went left and then a right, and then a few metres later to get here. All that was in this room were pokéball racks and the restoration machine, and it was coloured the same as the rest of the gym.

It took only five minutes to heal Pokémon, though Lily said she'd need to give them to Nurse Joy for them to be properly healed. After that, they took a detour on the way back, meaning fifteen minutes had passed before they returned to the battlefield, much to Leah's displeasure. She ended missing a quarter of Ash's match, not that she knew that yet.

Throughout the gym, the walls were blue with a red stripe in the middle, which Leah thought was rather smart looking. While she was following Daisy and Lily, Leah had noticed several rooms with interesting things in them on their way to the room, including a gymnasium: she wondered if it was for the trainers or Pokémon, or maybe both.

They also passed a staircase that went down somewhere and was dark, which Leah found mysterious. She asked about it on their way back, unable to help herself. Lily and Daisy were thrilled to answer and quickly started telling Leah about it.

"Oh! That goes down to the viewing area! You can see our pokémon swimming down there, which is totally cool. When the gym season is quiet, we open this up so people can come and admire our water pokémon, who love all the attention. People sometimes come down here before and after shows, too," Lily said, quite excited. "We have it open for free to make it totally awesome."

"Come on! We will show you!" Daisy said, grabbing Leah's hand and pulling her towards the stairs, despite Leah's protests. Lily very quickly joined and helped Daisy pull the resisting Leah down the stairs.

"Hey! But! Wait! I want to see Ash's battle!" Leah protested.

"Come on, this won't take too long; battles go on for hours!" Daisy insisted. Eventually, Leah stopped fighting, following resignedly, accepting her fate.

#################

Meanwhile, back at the battle...

Ash called for a Quick Attack to start the battle as soon as Violet said they could start, wanting to get the first move. Goldeen dodged by jumping out of the water and at that point, Misty called for horn attack, so then goldeen went back in and swam up to froakie before jumping out and attacking. Ash asked Froakie to dodge with quick attack then he asked for him to use growl.

"Now! Strength!" Ash asked.

"Dodge! Stay in the water and use bubble beam! Then use supersonic!" Misty called.

"Dodge, Froakie!" Ash called. Then he said, "Bubble! Corner goldeen!"  
"Break all the bubbles!" Misty cried. "Use those same attacks again!"  
"Water Pulse! Then Quick Strength!" Ash said, revealing his combo of quick attack and strength.

"Dodge! Horn attack head-on!" Misty said, seeing this was not getting anywhere, deciding to break the chain, so to speak, and try and deal some damage.

"Take it! Land that hit, froakie!" Ash cried, waving his hand.

"This is a really good battle so far," Brock remarked, enjoying it.

"Quite," Anabel nodded, not completely sure what she thought, thinking it was a bit early.

The battle continued on, with both Goldeen and Froakie taking quite a few hits. Just as they were both looking completely exhausted and everyone thought the battle was nearly over, both pokémon let out cries and were surrounded by the bright light to signify evolution.

"They're evolving? At the same time?" Violet cried in disbelief.

"Wow! That's so cool!" Ash cried.

"Ash and Misty's pokémon evolving at the same time? Amazing," Leah muttered, disbelieving as she came to a halt just next to the pool. She had just run into the room, having managed to give Lily and Daisy the slip. After getting away, Leah ran back, not wanting them to catch up to her. She vaguely noticed her shoulder was throbbing from Star digging her claws in.

It was easier than Leah would have thought to escape: though, someone much more interesting than Leah had rung Lily up, which Leah suspected played a major part in that, not that she was complaining. Daisy tried to eavesdrop, standing practically on top of her sister, who kept trying to turn away and push Daisy off, meaning it was easy for Leah to shamefully run away while both women were distracted.

She felt terrible, but she wanted to see Ash battle, and she wasn't convinced she was going to if she didn't get out of there then. As it was, she saw when she arrived, she thought it looked as though she had missed quite a bit.

She hoped Lily and Daisy would not be too upset, but it couldn't be helped. Leah, after seeing Froakie and Goldeen evolving and registering the fact, quickly walked around and up into the stands to sit next to her friends.

Meanwhile, everyone else intently watched the two water-types change form to reveal their new forms, and no one noticed Leah enter because of it. A blue frog which was taller and more regal than froakie stood in his place, and he had patches of dark blue now, along with a bubble scarf around his neck. Goldeen now was an orange and black coloured fish with an impressive tail and some impressive fins, and his horn was quite a bit longer than as a goldeen. As Leah sat next to Brock, she couldn't help but feel grateful she wasn't getting hit with the horn of Goldeen's evolved form and pitied the pokémon who would be. Then Ash and Leah pulled their pokédexes out and scanned the two evolved forms: Ash was excited to learn more about frogadier.

'_Seaking, the goldfish pokémon. Male, smaller than average, and has evolved early._

_In the autumn, Seaking males can be seen performing courtship dances in riverbeds to woo females. During this season, this Pokémon's body colouration is at its most beautiful."_

_'Frogadier, the bubble frog pokémon, male._

_It can throw bubble-covered pebbles with precise control, hitting empty cans up to a hundred feet away."_

"Wow! You look awesome, Frogadier! You sound it, too!" Ash exclaimed to his pokémon, clearly impressed and in awe. "Do you want to continue?"

"Frog!" Frogadier cried happily. He was still happy to continue, and try out his new form.

"I hope seaking is okay," Misty said to Violet, sounding concerned. Pokémon evolved early in the wild quite often due to natural disasters and events and generally didn't have any issues, except maybe being naturally weaker, but it didn't stop Misty from worrying.

"Ask him if he's okay to continue battling! If so, continue and get Nurse Joy to check him later! We have to take them all down anyway: so why not today rather than tomorrow or whenever?!" Violet suggested.

"Good idea! Seaking, can you battle more?" Misty asked her pokémon, feeling a little embarrassed to ask Violet that when that was the most obvious choice.

"Sea! Seaking!" Seaking nodded, jumping up and down in the water.  
"Continue!" Violet nodded.

"Use horn attack!" Misty cried.

"Use your bubbles to slow him down! Then strength!" Ash called.

"You were gone for a while, Leah," Anabel said to Leah when they got over the excitement of Pokémon evolving. Not that Anabel would admit it, but she had only just noticed Leah, which was embarrassing as it didn't look as though she had just arrived. Frogadier just hit seaking with lick, who quickly retaliated with water gun.  
"Yeah, Daisy and Lily dragged me off on a detour on the way back. I did get to see some cool pokémon, though: Skrelp from the Kalos Region, Corsola from Johto, and many more! I learnt the names of so many new pokémon!" Leah cried, sounding a little excited, seeing Frogadier do some fancy manoeuvres to avoid being hit by a rather powerful bubble beam. Leah was vaguely aware she was acting like a five-year-old, but she couldn't bring herself to care.

"That would be exciting," Anabel nodded, thinking learning anything you didn't know about pokémon was exciting.

"I am so jealous! I wish I could spend some time with the sisters," Brock said longingly. Even without him saying as much, Anabel and Leah could both tell that was what Brock wanted.

"Oh, dry up, mush," Leah said, rolling eyes. Then she gasped in horror and covered her mouth: where did that come from? Leah hadn't thought, and the words just tumbled out while she thought about how sick Brock's wannabe mushiness was making her.

"I, I am so sorry!" She quickly apologised to Brock who now just stared at her. Leah felt terrified, embarrassed, surprised, and slightly ashamed at herself. That and she wasn't sure what to do now, other than apologise.

"I don't know why you're sorry: Brock deserved it. It's okay, Leah, you are just developing a personality," Anabel said quickly, having stared at Leah herself, unable to believe what she just heard.

While insulting people was discouraged, Leah didn't need that, due to her nature, it would make it worse. Anabel doubted the blonde would go too overboard with insulting people, and it showed she was getting more relaxed and confident, or so Anabel thought. Anabel then thought to how she had quickly come to like the group, especially Leah.

"Now! Lick!" Ash called, back at the battle.

"Dodge! Water Gun point blank!" Misty practically screamed to her tired pokemon.

Even with the extra power and stamina from evolution, the two pokémon were beginning to tire after close to ten minutes of action-packed fighting. Frogadier let out a grunt as he took the water gun, but Ash quickly called for Water Pulse, which also hit its mark.

Ash then asked for Quick Strength while Misty called for Horn Attack, both missed, so Ash switched to just quick attack while Misty stuck with horn attack. A few minutes passed before either made contact, but that was enough to end the battle for both pokémon.

Just as Lily and Daisy walked into the room, Violet called, "Both pokémon are unable to battle! This is a draw!"  
"Good job, Frogadier," Ash said, returning Frogadier, extremely proud of his friend.  
"Staravia!" Star cried out, her voice echoing throughout the room.

"Espi!" Espeon said, also speaking loudly.

"They were both congratulating the two fallen pokémon," Anabel translated for Brock and Leah, and both nodded. Leah had been curious about what was said, so she was happy Anabel did that for her and Brock.

"Thank you, Seaking, you did very well..." Misty said, also proud of her partner.

"Riolu, ready pal?" Ash asked, turning to the blue fox who had been by Ash's side the entire time.

"Ri," Riolu nodded, then he ran forward and jumped onto one of the platforms floating in the pool. He kept jumping and running until he was one a platform close to the centre of the pool.  
"Daisy! Lily! Is Marill healed?" Misty asked, turning to her two sisters, glad they hadn't gone to sit in the stands yet.

"Yes," they nodded. Lily pulling two pokéballs out of her pocket.

"Bring him over here then, please," Misty requested.

Lily walked over and handed Misty the two Pokéballs, even though she had only asked for the one, but Misty took both nonetheless. Lily and Daisy headed up into the stands while Misty put one ball on her belt; she threw the other to release the same marill Leah had battled, who was now all energised.

"Begin!" Violet said.

"Disarming voice!" Misty said, not wasting time.

"Dodge! Quick Attack!" Ash called. He could communicate without giving verbal orders, but he wasn't comfortable with the idea of doing it in a gym battle and Ash and Riolu's skills did still need developing. He also thought it was cheating, though Ash wasn't aware of a rule against it.

Riolu dodged the Fairy-type move, thankfully, then slammed into Marill with quick attack, sending her a few metres away. "Use your makeshift thunder punch!" Ash cried, hoping he had enough electricity in the attack to do some real damage, and hoping for it to hit marill.

"Water Gun!" Misty said, knowing that's the only move Marill would be able to use before Riolu could react and dodge. Both attacks made contact, meaning neither took damage and there was an explosion.

As Lily and Daisy sat down in the stands, Lily said to Leah, sounding slightly upset, "Leah! You gave us the slip!"  
"Yes! How could you!" Daisy said, in false sounding put out.

"Sor, sorry, but I didn't want to miss too much of Ash's match. Thanks for showing me the pokémon, though," Leah said shyly. She sounded very sincere, and she was terrified of what they thought of her now.

Surprisingly for Leah, the two sisters burst out laughing: not what she expected. Brock was surprised too, but Anabel wasn't, she had been able to see they were putting it on. Wherever or not it was due to her abilities to be able to read people's feelings, or it was just that Brock was too busy google eyeing the performing sisters, she didn't know.

"What? Why, why are you laughing?" Leah said, looking completely bamboozled. Poor Leah, it was a bit of a mean trick to pull on someone as sensitive, shy and scared of making mistakes as Leah, Anabel thought.

"Sorry, Leah, we were just having a bit of a joke! You planned it perfectly, I'll give you that! It is fine!" Daisy said, trying to calm herself as Riolu got hit with Ice Beam and blasted halfway across the room.

"Really? You mean it?" Leah stuttered as Riolu bounced back from where he'd been thrown and punched marill.

"Yes," Lily nodded, as Ash asked Riolu to use quick attack to avoid disarming voice marill had sent at him. When he was in close, Riolu used Force Palm, which sent Marill back several metres.

Ash then asked for feint, while Misty called for Marill to protect himself with ice beam then use tail whip. Ash called out for Riolu to do his own tail whip attack, then use agility. "Marill! Surf!" Misty called.

"Dodge! Quick attack!" Ash said brightly. "Focus energy!" he said as Riolu made contact with Marill. Riolu had jumped up into the air, then somehow propelled himself and hit Marill without being hit by the surf attack.

"Marill! Disarming voice!" Misty cried, seeing an opening. She was smirking, which worried Ash until he heard her command.

"Riolu! No! Endure instead!" Ash cried, panicked.

Riolu quickly switched attacks, and was hit, but he managed to hold himself with endure. "Now! Revenge!"  
"Marill! Water gun!" Misty ordered. Ash quickly thought after a glance at riolu, which told him all he needed to know.

"_Use Quick attack to dodge then attack! Make a lasting impression!_" Ash said through aura, not wanting to let Misty now. This was it, he was not going to fail from here, he was going to end the battle and win his second badge.

Riolu did as Ash asked, speeding around the room to ram into Marill's side. "No!" Misty screamed as Marill was flung into the wall behind her. Everyone couldn't help but be surprised and impressed by that display of strength; many of the onlookers had no idea Riolu had that in him, but Ash had always known. He grinned proudly.

"Marill is unable to battle! The challenger, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, wins!" Violet cried, signalling the end of the match.

"Yay! We won!" Ash cried as Riolu bound back to him, both trainer and pokémon extremely happy. Then Ash hugged his partner in crime, so to speak, and then the two danced around happily.

"Well done, Marill," Misty said, returning her aqua mouse to his ball as Violet rushed off to get a badge and TM, which Misty was grateful for. Then she looked over at Ash who was using a potion on Riolu and smiled. She might have lost, but it was nice to see Ash so excited: he was a good kid.

Everyone got out of the stands and walked to about where Violet was before she exited the room, as did Ash and Misty. "Well done, Ash! That was amazing!" Leah said, honestly inspired.

"Star! Staravia!" Star cried.

"Star agrees. But all the same, good job, Ash," Anabel said with a smile.

"Yes, that was a fine battle, almost made me want to take up battling again more than ever. Misty, I should have said this earlier, but you have become a great battler, too," Daisy said, giving Ash a sly smile and a wink, then turning and smiling genuinely at Misty.

"I agree, and I'm sure Violet would say the same," Lily nodded.

"Really?" Misty said, surprised about what her sister said. She then felt her cheeks redden: Misty tried to remember the last time she'd been praised like this by her sisters.

"Great job to both of you," Brock said, somehow stopping himself from making a fool of himself, despite the presence of the elder Waterflower sisters.

Violet returned then, and gave Misty something. Misty then turned to Ash, saying, "Ash, It is my pleasure to present you with the Cascade Badge." She held her hand out with the badge in it. "I also have a TM for you, too: when your ready, of course," she finished, pulling something out of her pocket.

"Thanks," Ash said, quickly releasing Frogadier before taking the badge. He showed it to his pokémon first. "See it? You both helped me win it. What do you think?" Then he did his signature pose with his pokémon. "Yeah! We got the Cascade Badge!"

"And here: the unbreakable TM for surf. You'll find it very handy, I know," Misty said after Ash put the badge away on his badges' case.

"Thanks," Ash said, nodding respectfully.

"So, Leah," Misty began, but then there was a loud rumble and crash. It sounded like a wall was being torn down or something similar.

"What is that?" Lily cried, alarmed.

Then Maple ran in. "Ladies! Come quick! Something is going on in the main pool! I fear we are under attack! I hope it isn't an attack from Team Rocket!" the green-blue haired lady said, evidently in a panic. "It must be to do with that break-in at what it's names' on the other side of town! Otherwise, it's a very big coincidence!"

"Okay, we're coming. Can you guys come and give us a hand? I have a bad feeling about this," Daisy asked Ash and co. They all nodded, and without wasting a second they all ran after Maple towards the room with the main pool within it, dread filling everyone every step of the way.

######################################

When they got to the main pool, the first thing they saw was a giant machine that resembled a vacuum cleaner just entering a hole in the wall, the vacuum arm ready for action. They all could guess this machine must have hit the wall and put the hole in it.

"All no! What about our next show?!" Violet moaned.

"That's hardly the most pressing issue!" Leah cried, unable to help herself and rolling her eyes at Violet. How could she be worrying about that when it was clear the gym was under attack?

"Who are you?! What are you doing here?!" Misty yelled at the machine.

"And what do you want? How dare you disturb our gym and destroy it!" Lily also yelled.

"Who dares, indeed," two voices rang out cackling. Then there was a low rumbling noise and two people appeared on top of the machine, who then said a familiar motto. Ash and Leah recognised them as the Rockets from Viridian City, Jessie and James: they also had a talking meowth as part of their team, or so Ash thought.

Ash's aura, which had been calm until that point, (a little excited from the battle perhaps,) flared up when James and Jessie said they were here to steal pokémon. "How dare you, scum! I'll show you!" Ash said, releasing Pidgeotto to help Riolu fight. Frogadier was too tired to do any more battling, so he didn't release the water frog, and Misty was in much the same boat with marill and seaking.  
"Let's go!" Misty said, releasing Starmie and Staryu.

"We'll help too!" Leah said and Anabel nodded, both a bit dumbstruck by Ash using the word scum: one thing's for sure, Anabel was really worried. She had heard of Aura Users turning rouge because the aura took control, partly why people went out for their blood in the middle ages, same deal with psychics.

As well as Espeon and Star, Snivy, Clefairy and Metagross were sent out to join them. Brock released Binacle, with none of his pokémon other than Bincle being suited to fighting in this room, and zubat being simply too weak.

Daisy, Lily and Violet all released a selection of water pokémon, some quite powerful, somewhat surprisingly. Daisy shouted and a Seel came to help, too, along with Lily releasing a Kingler she seemingly forgot about until the last second.

Maple, who had disappeared after informing them of the commotion, came running in with an armful of pokéballs. This was only some of the supply of pokémon the gym had, though the gym had a lot of multiples. The ones she had brought were mostly ones that needed to be in the pool, which seemed an odd choice, but maybe there was not a lot of choice outside swimming only pokémon?

Violet said, holding a pokéball, looking down at it kindly, "Your only new and weak still, but this is your time to prove yourself!"  
"You not going to release that shy little thing in the middle of a crisis, are you?!" Misty cried as Team Rocket turned on their machine, which started draining the pool, along with the water-types in it, much to their shock and dismay.

"Attack!" Daisy cried. Her Pokemon and all the pokémon in the pool attacked. Everyone else called their pokémon to attack, all the while Violet still held the pokéball, the other pokémon she had sent out following the lead of the others.

"Go, Sobble," Violet said, releasing what resembled a blue lizard. As soon as it (Sobble) saw the room, the people, the machine and pokémon, it quickly hid behind Violet. It could cope with one, maybe even two of those things, but not all at once! Sobble were known for being shy, and this one desperately wanted to please its master/mistress, Violet, but at time's like this it struggled and really couldn't do it.

All the pokémon minus sobble attacked with varies attacks, but they did little damage on the machine. Some of the gym's water pokémon had been sucked up, too. Sobble just watched, trying to summon the courage to face the bad guys.

"What's up with that machine?!" Anabel cried, deciding to call the police. She briefly wondered why she only just thought of it, but then Anabel had always been one to try and sort out the problem before thinking of alternatives. It was always getting her into trouble with her superior, as he was very much the opposite.

"We had a few good missions last week, so we got lent some super pokémon: you twerps won't stand a chance," James said, flicking his hair like a tart. He released a mean-looking Fearow while Jessie sent out a Skunky, along with their signature pokémon; Koffing and Ekans.

"Squash those annoying kids!" the Meowth cried.

"Fearow! Drill Pick! Kofffing, smog!" James commanded.

"Skunky! Poison Gas! Ekans, poison sting!" Jessie ordered.

Everyone else called their pokémon to attack, including Ash getting Pidgeotto to blow the smog away. However, what James said proved to be true, as the pokémon landed hits and did a lot of damage. Several, including Clefairy and Kingler were knocked out.

"Sobble, please help us!" Violet turned around and pleaded, as Anabel started to creep off around the pool.

The timid pokémon looked into her eyes, and sat there shaking, until it eventually had a firm look and nodded, and jumped forward. Misty looked shocked that her sister had got her pokémon to be brave enough to charge into the battle.

In the end, Sobble was the one who sent the rocket trio flying with a surprisingly powerful water gun, even if it was Anabel who had freed the pokémon and pool water by flicking a switch on the outside of the machine, causing it to send everything it had sucked up back out. Meanwhile, the others had distracted Jessie and James and defeated their pokémon and damaged their machine. Everyone cheered, though Ash was a little disappointed and upset the Rocket Trio got away.

"Yay! Well done, Sobble, you're the best!" Violet exclaimed, running over and hugging her lizard. The little lizard froze up as if it were going to attack or run then he relaxed.

"Well done. You were a great help," Anabel told the lizard, having returned to the group.

"Sob? Sobble?" Sobble looked at them both startled, then it grinned and gave a cheer.

Everyone thanked Sobble, seeing how timid it was before, and Leah at least could relate and understand how it felt. Sobble looked very happy and a bit less terrified now, and perhaps more confident?

"How are we ever going to get this cleaned up?" Maple moaned, looking at the mess Team Rocket had made. She knew she would be working overtime just to get the gym to do her actual job.

"We will call the league, and until then, no shows, and the gym battles can be in the other arena," Misty said, taking charge.

"No shows?!" Lily exclaimed, looking horrified.

"That's outrageous!" Daisy moaned.

"Actually, I think Misty has a good idea, despite how much I enjoy performing," Violet said quietly, still holding Sobble tightly.

"Then it's settled." Misty said, looking satisfied.  
"Where did you get that Sobble from, Violet? This is the first time I have heard of it," Anabel asked Violet. Until now, the pokémon had been unknown to Anabel, and the only thing she knew about it even now is it's a water-type and very timid.

"He is a starter from the Galar Region, well sort of: they don't actually have a set of starters, most people are given a pokémon their endorser thinks would suit them. Professor Magnolia and her granddaughter came over last year for a conference, which is where we met, and she gave me this pokémon as part of trying to make Galar more well known," Violet explained. "They talked about a Chairman Rose a lot, and I got the impression this was mostly his idea: certainly not Professor Magnolia's."

"I wish I had gone to that: I am so jealous of you getting a rare and new pokémon," Misty said enviously.

"The Galar region, huh? I'd like to learn more about it," Ash said, thinking they needed to go there.

"Something about it, I don't know..." Leah said, drifting off. She thought something about the name seemed to call her. She would find out all she could, she decided as she said, "We will have to go there one day."  
"Yes! We shall," Ash nodded, excited about the prospect.

"Anyway, to more pressing matters, when will you come and re-challenge me?" Misty asked Leah.

"Err, I don't know," Leah said, flushing.

"How about in two days? It will give us time to clean up, somewhat," Misty suggested, hearing sounds and realising the police had arrived. Had someone called them, she briefly wondered. She also wondered if they could get any help out of the league to clean this up: get something for the money they gave the league each year to keep the gym affiliated and open.

"It's a deal," Leah nodded, hoping that would be long enough for her to get her pokémon strong enough to beat Misty in a rematch.

After exchanging a few more words, Ash, Brock, Leah and Anabel headed back to the Pokemon Centre as the sun begins to set, with all the pokémon walking alongside them, leaving the sisters to deal with the police Anabel revealed she had called.

Ash couldn't help but feel they turned up too late, as usual. Leah though, for some reason, was glad Jessie and James hadn't been arrested. Despite it all, she found something likeable about them and their talking meowth.

* * *

**Yep, Jessie and James have new pokemon. I figure they have to get something right, and they kinda need to step up to be a threat when there are three twerps against the two of them. They won't have them forever, though. And yeah! Sobble! I couldn't resist including a bit of Galar into this chapter. **

**Polls: on the third, I'm gonna change the current poll back to Ash, and I'll probably leave it up until I post the eleventh, maybe twelfth? chapter? it will depend on how much interest I get: more votes before then I'll close it perm upon uploading chapter eleven, otherwise it will be twelve. Just, with how the plot is going I do need an answer to shape the path of the story. I'll put Leah's back up after that, and leave it up until I decide when I need the answer. And if it so happens we have some common blood between them, I am toying with the idea of keeping it that way, or changing one to the second option that seems best.**

**Thanks for reading and thank you to the reviewers, followers and favouriters: I love you all and may the fates bless you. Any suggestions for my clean up please feel free to let me know, as with me doing it now's as gooder time as any!**

**Also, do you want flashbacks for interactions between Mars and Leah? Don't forget, I am planning pairings still, except for Ash which I am firm with Ash X Cynthia. I've changed my mind about the others and except for that one and Brock's choice between Susie and Lucy, the rest are up for negotiation.**

**That's all, I think.**


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